Alternative Harry Potter Story
by ijedi
Summary: What if Lily Potter did not die? What if Sirius was found innocent on the same night he was charged? this and many other changes in the story. Chapter 36: the aftermath of the Chamber of Secrets
1. A different beginning

Chapter 1

It was a normal day in nineteen eighty-one. One family in Godric Hallow was celebrating Halloween, which was one of their favorite holidays. The family which lived there were Potters, who consisted of James, Lily and little Harry who recently turned one.

That family seemed a very regular family with loving parents and a child. However, they had a secret, which they did not tell to most people. They were one of the wizard families and had an ability to use magic. They also currently were hiding since the most evil wizard was looking for them to kill them since he thought they were a threat.

But even with that, the family was enjoying their family together not worrying about what might happen. It was after all a Halloween and they wanted to be happy.

Suddenly, James Potter heard the front door being opened with words "Alohomora". Potter was not stupid, as he knew that only his enemies would break in. He realized who just entered the house.

"Lily, grab Harry and run away. I will hold him." James told his wife to get to safety. As Lily with their child escaped the room, James saw him. That creature was looking very pale. His face did not have nose but slits and his eyes were red. Lord Voldemort just arrived at the house.

"Step aside, I don't want to hurt a pureblood"

"I would rather die than step aside"

"Imperio" The Dark Lord cast a controlling spell but it did not work. "Avada Kedavra" was his next spell, which upon hitting James killed the man immediately. Voldemort satisfied started looking around and blowing up all the doors, which he could find in order to find the child, his enemy. Upon blowing up the last door he saw a woman holding a baby.

"Step aside and I spare you."

"No, don't hurt my harry, kill me"

"I rather not as you could be a useful tool to keep my loyal Death Eater Snape in his place. You will be his slave, as he is really crazy about you for no apparent reason."

With those words he silently threw Lily Potter away from the child and spoke his favorite two words "Avada Kedavra"

When Lily woke up she saw the whole house in ruins and the Dark Lord was nowhere to be seen. She looked around and saw her son with a lightning scar on his forehead.

"Harry!" Lily cried. The child woke up and started crying but after his mother took him in her arms, Harry quieted down. She did not know how long she sat with her son like that. Some time later she heard many people approaching, one of whom had a rather large beard.

"Albus, Voldemort killed James"

"How is it possible Lily? I personally place Fidelius on the house"

"It means the Secret Keeper betrayed us" She then saw Sirius.

"How could you? James was your best friend"

"Hold on Lily, first I was not a Secret Keeper but Peter. I am also not a Death Eater" With that he rolled up his sleeve, which did not contain a tattoo.

"Sorry for doubting you Sirius but I was so depressed because of this situation."

"That's understandable Lils."

"I need to talk to you two about an important matter" Dumbldore spoke. "Lily, your son survived because his father sacrificed himself to save his son. So now, Harry needs to live with his relatives on his father line to get protected by blood wards. Luckily for you, Sirius is his cousin, so you two can raise Harry together. But I recommend to leave this place as more Death Eaters may come"

"All right Professor, but what about Peter? We need to capture him as he betrayed us and caused James to die"

"I agree with Lily. I will go and make an omelet from that bastard"

"I am coming with you Sirius. After all, what Peter did affects me directly"

The two wizards apparated from the house to search for the traitor. They were looking thoroughly and finally their efforts paid off- they saw Peter on a street full of Muggles.

The traitorous rat saw them and started firing spells at the two. The duo quickly caught up and started firing spells as well. At one point, it seemed that Peter got blown up together with at least ten Muggles. But Lily saw the animagus and fired a quick stunner at him. The rat dropped on the ground and stopped moving. After the two Wizards obliviated everyone who saw the event, Aurors came together with Minister Fudge.

"Sirius Black, you are arrested for the murder of James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and many Muggles."

"Minister, he did not kill them and Peter is not dead, he is stunned in his animagus form" The Minister of Magic looked confused but then he saw a rat being held by Lily Potter. She fired a revealing spell and everyone saw the traitorous Marauder.

"You two have a hearing at Wizengamot tomorrow." He pointed at two men.

Next day, there was a full session of Wizengamot members present. They looked at the two men, who sat in the chairs and surprisingly for them; only one was chained, as the chair did not find Sirius guilty.

"Hello members of Wizengamot, My name is Albus Dumbledore and lets the meeting begin. We will start with Sirius Black. Could someone bring Virisatium?"

The liquid was brought in and Sirius Black quickly drank it.

"Now, I will ask you a number of questions. Were you a Secret Keeper for Potters?"

"No"

"Do you know who was?"

"Yes I do. It was Peter Pettigrew"

"Everyone assumed previously that it was you. Why did you gave that false information?"

"I knew that it was common knowledge that James and I were very close and that I would be the most likely candidate for that position so no one would suspect Peter"

"Now, did you kill those Muggles?"

"No"

After Sirius left, it was Peter's turn. Albus Dumbledore gave him the liquid and started asking him questions.

"Were you a Secret Keeper of Potters?"

"Yes"

"Why did you betray your friends?"

"Because the Dark Lord promised me a lot of things for that. I became a Death Eater a while ago"

"And did you kill those Muggles?"

"Yes, I did."

The Wizengamot members discussed the issue between them and made up the verdict.

"Sirius Black, you are found innocent. You are free to go. Peter Pettigrew, you are found guilty and you are given a life sentence in Azkaban" Upon hearing that Pettigrew tried to transform into a rat but could not. Apparently, people learned of his Animagus form and put special charms.

Later in the day Lily Potter met Sirius Black, who now was cleared of all charges. He looked at Lily, who was sad since she lost her husband.

"Lily, Dumbledore wants me to stay with Harry to give blood wards for his protection. I thought that you could stay with him and I will be there to protect him. But I am not sure where we should go now. As you know, there are still many Death Eaters out there out to get him and as Albus suggested Harry should not be interacting with the wizard world yet since he is already so famous."

"I understand. I thought we should go and live at my parents' house. They would be delighted to see their grandson." That night, three wizards moved to Evans house, where the older couple welcomed them with open arms.

A/N This will not have Sirius/ Lily relationship. Sirius will have a role of an Uncle to Harry.


	2. First friend

Chapter 2

Seven years passed. Harry Potter was living with his grand parents, his mother Lily Potter and his Uncle Sirius. Occasionally, another good friend of his father showed up, who was Remus Lupin. He quickly became friends with little wizard.

One day Harry was reading one of his favorite books, History of Magic. He learned that he was a wizard six when he was seven by performing some accidental magic. From that moment he started reading a number of books. His mother also took care that he learned Potions, as it was a rather difficult subject to master. Nevertheless, Harry was making a lot of progress by studying with his mum.

That day, while in the process of reading about yet another Goblin War, Harry was called in the kitchen. He put a book on the table and went to the room. In it he saw his mum standing there with the dinner table getting prepared.

"Hello honey, I wanted to tell you today that one family is moving in to our neighborhood. We invited them to a dinner today. They have a daughter about your age. I wanted you to show her the neighborhood and remember you need to be polite young man."

Harry waited for the new family to arrive. He was curious about the girl and he was thinking if she would be nice or not. At about five in the evening, someone knocked on the door and Harry went to open the door. There stood two adults with a shy bushy haired girl about his age.

"Hello and welcome to Evans house. My name is Harry Potter" Harry tried to be as polite as he could since he knew that if he would not, Lily would not teach him Potions and he so much liked that subject.

"Hello, my name is Dan Granger and this is my wife Emma and daughter Hermione"

"Hello Harry" said the girl. Harry could feel that the girl felt a little insecure about herself. Harry showed where Dinner room was to the adults and was left alone with Hermione.

"So Hermione, could you tell me what you like to do?" Harry tried to start conversation.

"You want to talk to me?" blushed the girl "Nobody of my age ever wanted to talk to me since I am known as a know it all bookworm."

"Don't worry Hermione. To tell the truth you are the first person my age I have talked to since my mom does not let me out of the house for some apparent reason. And if that will make you feel easier I like to study too"

The two continued talking and Harry then showed his room to Hermione. His magical books were hidden before the guests arrived so that they would not accidentally see them. Hermione saw many books and got excited. She saw some book on an upper shelf and tried to grab it but she could not due to her size. But after her last attempt to get the book, she tried to reach it for the last time and something odd happened- the bookshelf fell on the floor and Hermione saw that the book she wanted was in her hand. The noise attracted adults and two mothers entered the room.

"What happened? Why are all the books on the floor? I thought I taught you better Hermione"

"It was an accident Mrs. Granger. She did not mean to do it"

"Yes but how did that happen?"

"I think I know what happened. Hermione just performed some accidental magic because she tried to get the book, which she could not"

"Magic? It does not exist" Emma Granger protested

"It does. In fact, this little accident tell me that your daughter is a witch"

"Stop insulting my child"

"That is not an insult, Emma, I am a witch too and Harry is a wizard. At a certain age wizards and witches receive a letter from a Hogwarts, where they learn how to use magic" With that Lily took out her wand and lifted the bookshelf with all the books, which were on the floor and put them back into their place. The two Granger women were amazed.

"Don't worry, she will learn how to perform magic. I also thought about teaching some basics in magic to Hermione since she is a muggleborn and new to our world."

"What is a muggleborn?"

"Well, a muggleborn is a wizard or a witch who has parents as Muggles or people who cannot perform magic. I am a Muggleborn myself. There are some people out there who think that muggleborns are inferior to pureblood and half blood wizards but I am sure that Harry will protect his friends from such people"

"Alright, so what does my little daughter need for studying?"

"For now, she can read his books about magic and study Potions but later after she receives a letter from school, she will have a list of necessary things." The two mothers returned to the dinner room and Harry and Hermione went to read some of his magic books.

A/N next chapter Harry will meet the Weasleys! I am currently thinking how third year should go since I cannot follow the 3rd book because Sirius is innocent. I am welcome to suggestions. Also I would like to know what pairings should occur with the main Harry/Hermione.


	3. Birthday and new friends

Chapter 3

Harry Potter was very happy since it was his eleventh birthday and he was told that most kids receive their Hogwarts letter on that day. He also saw that Hermione already received her letter and he was planning for all the shopping. And there was one other thing- he would meet new friends as his mum decided to visit Weasleys at the Burrow.

Harry Potter ate breakfast and prepared himself for the visit. He would be gone with Sirius while his mum would be staying at home with her parents. At noon, Sirius showed up and the two wizards popped to the Burrow.

Harry did not like the landing when they arrived, as he has never practiced traveling by portkey. He would practice more of that type of travel, he said to himself. He looked around and saw a house, which was oddly shaped. On the field where he landed he saw many people, all of whom had red hair. One boy approached him and introduced himself.

"Hello, my name is Ron Weasley" he said

"My name is Harry Potter"

"I heard a lot about you. Common, my family would like to meet you. So Harry, what do you like to do?"

"Well, I read about Quidditch a lot and I would like to start learning how to fly. I also like studying, particularly Potions and history"

"I don't really like to study but I like Quidditch a lot. Would you like to try flying? We have some brooms; they are not very good or anything but you could still fly and play the game."

"Sure. Would anybody else like to play? I am still concerned that I will play not good enough"

"Don't worry Harry, everybody sucks in the beginning but I am sure you will improve" the two boys reached the small pitch where kids played the game and saw that three other Weasleys approached them.

"Hey Harry, how are you. Would you like to play some Quidditch?"

"Don't worry if you suck at first, little Ronnekins plays not well either. And we recommend to find a spider to put on his broom, Ronnekins will love that!"

"Hey! I will tell mum if you do that again! I remembered how you two pranked my teddy bear! They are the worst pranksters in the school"

"I am sorry to hear about your teddy bear and whatever they did. If you two like pranks, I recommend talking to Sirius. He was known as Padfoot."

"No, I cannot believe that," said Fred

"We have a chance to talk to one of the Marauders! That is priceless" Twins went to talk to Sirius if he had any great ideas.

"Harry what have you done? Do you know that it means that their school pranks will get more elaborate?"

"Don't worry Ron, sure they will not do anything harsh to us. And what is your name, you did not introduce yourself" Harry asked the girl

"My name is Ginny and I heard so much about you!"

"Strange, I don't remember giving any interviews. But you two will get a privilege of knowing true stuff about me and not some lies written in the papers. Ginny, right? I noticed you look like my mom, we really need to investigate why is that" Ginny blushed.

"So guys, are we playing any Quidditch?" The three children climbed on the brooms and flew in the sky. The siblings were shocked on how well Harry flew.

"Are you sure you never had flying lessons before?"

"No, why?"

"You are natural Harry! You should definitely try for the school team."

After the game, Harry played some chess with his new friends. In the evening they had a dinner, where Harry was surprised to see a cake with eleven candles. He was happy that they remembered that it was his birthday. After he took a piece of cake, he took a drink and his ears turned green and his hair blue. Everyone laughed, including Harry since he was happy to celebrate his birthday with his new friends.

In the evening Harry arrived to his room via the same method as before but now he almost managed to land correctly. As he arrived in the room, he saw that someone with bushy hair jumped and hugged him.

"Happy birthday Harry" said Hermione. They went to the dinner room to celebrate Harry's birthdays once again but know at home and Harry saw three people sitting there next to his mum, grandparents and Grangers.

"Wotcher Harry. My name is Tonks, as I don't like my first name. I am happy to finally meet you!" Tonks went and hugged Harry.

"It is nice to meet you Tonks, but who are you? I don't recall having any friends or neighbors having a surname Tonks"

"Oh, you silly, I am your cousin a couple times removed. As I recall, I am Uncle Sirius's favorite cousin. I will be attending Hogwarts this year as well and will be in seventh year. I am in Hupplepuff. Which house do you think you will get in?"

"I don't know. As I recall from "Hogwarts, A History", there are four houses. Gryffindor for the brave, Ravenclaw for the smart, Hupplepuff for loyal and hardworking and Slytherin for the cunning and ambitious."

"Very good Harry, I see that you did your homework. So which of the four do you think you will be in?"

"I think Gryffindor as I want to be with my friends or maybe Hupplepuff. Is it true that Slytherin is evil house where only dark wizards and witches go?"

"No, while mostly true, there is at least one person I can think of who was there and is not evil. My mom was in Slytherin; so don't worry about getting in that house. You will do fine in each of them. By the way, here is you letter, it came when you were at Burrow" Harry took the letter and went to celebrate his birthday yet another time.

A/N I will be altering timeline quite a bit. I decided to put a couple surprises in later chapters. I am still wondering how third year should go as it cannot occur with Sirius being innocent. What house would you like Harry to be? Gryffindor is not guaranteed.


	4. Diagon Alley

Chapter 4

Harry Potter and Hermione entered Leaky Cauldron. They asked their parents if they could go shop alone, to which the adults objected but finally agreed if Tonks came with them since she was of age. Three friends went to the back of the pub and Tonks showed the youngsters how to open the wall.

"Wow" said the two. They saw many shops, one of which caught Hermione's particular attention.

"Can we go to the bookstore first, please?" She asked

"We need to take money from the Gringotts first. Common, this way" The two followed Tonks as she showed them where the bank was. They entered it and walked to one of the counters.

"Ladies first" said Harry and put Hermione before him.

"Thanks. I would like to transfer some money from pounds to wizard currency" she asked the goblin.

"How much do you have?" he asked

"My parents gave me hundred pounds." The goblin looked at the rates and took the money "two galleons and five sickles."

"Hey, you did not give my friend enough, she was supposed to get twenty galleons!" harry told angrily.

"Sorry kid but we will not give more"

"You will" by then Harry was steaming and the girls could feel his anger.

"No" Harry was pissed. He knew that the money Hermione was given would be not enough to buy the supplies. He was thinking on what to do.

"Hermione, I would like to pay for your expenses. I heard Sirius that Potters have enough money saved.

"No, I don't want to be a burden" the girl protested.

"It is alright with me. And besides, you will not be able to buy everything from your list as you have little money on you." Harry looked at the same Goblin. "I would like to withdraw money from my account. Here is the key" Harry could see that the goblin took the key greedily and checked.

"Come with me Mr. Potter."

"I want Hermione to come with me. I authorize her to enter my vault, sir," The goblin agreed reluctantly and two children parted with Tonks as she went to another cashier. They climbed in a trolley and went downhill. Harry enjoyed the ride while Hermione was scared.

"At least they have something good in this bank. I always asked my mum to go to a rollercoaster" The trolley stopped and they climbed on the ground. The goblin took the key and opened the vault. The children gasped.

"Harry, I did not know you had that much money here," she told him

"Neither did I. Now you absolutely cannot refuse to take money." They entered and filled their bags with coins. After they got upstairs, Harry had an idea.

"Sir, I would like to add my friend to have access to the vault" The goblin took the key again and copied it. Soon they saw Tonks and the trio exited the bank.

The first place they decided to go was Olivanders. The three entered and saw an old man.

"Hello, I see you came for wands?" The man looked at them and gave a wand to try each. Hermione got her wand on her third try while Harry was having problems. No wand was a good match for him.

"Curious" said Olivander, "I think I now what you need Mr. Potter" He gave Harry a wand and he suddenly felt that it was a wand for him. The old man thought it was interesting as when he told them that this wand had a brother wand, which gave Harry a scar. The trio paid for the wands and left the shop.

Their next destination was clothes. They entered Madame Malkins shop and started trying out which robes would fit them. Tonks went to buy some things she needed and left the two alone. While trying out, they saw a blond boy, looking for clothes too.

"Hello, who are you? My name is Draco Malfoy. I am going to Hogwarts for my first year as well"

"My name is Harry Potter"

"And mine is Hermione Granger"

"Granger, ha? I never head of that name before, are your parents one of us?"

"Excuse me?" Harry was confused at what the boy wanted, plus he started getting annoyed with him.

"O, I meant are they wizard or not? I know your parents Potter but what about you, Granger?"

"I am a muggleborn if you wanted to know. Why do you ask?" Hermione was getting annoyed at the guy

"Muggleborn? I don't understand how filth like you is accepted to Hogwarts. You probably are not smarter than some stupid animal"

"Malfoy, in case you did not know, my mother was a muggleborn too and she was the brightest witch in her year. That, and you should definitely read some biology as it clearly states that humans are animals too"

"I knew it! Those filthy Muggles think low of themselves" Harry and Hermione looked at each other and went away from the rude boy. They paid for the school dress and exited the shop.

"I cannot believe he said all that!" Said Harry. He was not pleased. He really wanted to smack Malfoy but as his mother taught him, he should never start a fight in a public place.

"Don't worry, Harry, we probably will not see him anymore besides classes. Don't worry, I know that you are my friend and that is all that matters to me"

"You know Hermione, sometimes I think that I like you a lot. Even in a heated situation you manage to stay calm" The two friends continued with shopping; bookstore was Hermione's favorite place and Harry literally had to grab and pull Hermione from the store after they got what they needed. Finally, after a long shopping trip, they had everything they needed.

"Hermione, lets go to the pet store, the letter said that we could buy an owl, a toad, a cat or a rat" They went to the pet store and Harry liked a snow-white owl that he decided to name Hedwig. Hermione looked around at the owls but did not like any. While she was looking around, she spotted a half-kneezel cat. She liked the animal and took him; she called him Crookshanks.

In the end of the trip, two first years met Tonks and the trio went to find where the parents were. They had a meal with some ice cream in the pub, where during the conversation they told what happened to them.

"Harry, the kid you have encountered is a Malfoy. I am sorry to say that but he is kind of related to both of us. He is the son of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, who is my aunt. That makes Draco your and mine cousin a couple times removed.

"That's just great. A boy who offended my best friend is related to me! What can be worse that?"

"Harry, don't worry, you are my friend no matter who your distant relatives are. You are not them"

"Precisely Hermione. See Harry, your friend is smart" Lily Potter told her son. After the group finished their meal, they returned home and got ready for the September the first.

A/N Next chapter: train, Ron meets Hermione and sorting.


	5. Train and Sorting

Chapter 5

In the morning of September the first, Harry and Hermione woke up early and met at a designated time at nine thirty am to talk to each other before their trip. At ten am, Tonks family arrived and three families had a large breakfast. After that, they put three bags next to the door. Then, they all apparated to the train station, with each wizard or witch holding hands with children or Muggles. The kids told goodbye to their families and ran at the barrier. As soon as they crossed it, they saw Platform 93/4.

"It is exactly as I thought it would be" told Hermione. The three friends were early and they soon occupied one of the rooms. They put their bags in it and sat. Eleven am was approaching and the train started to fill up. At almost eleven, a boy with red hair entered and sat next to his friend.

"Hey Harry, how was your time? I hope you practiced flying. I wish that first years were given permission to be on a team"

"Well, actually I did not have too much time as I prepared for school with my friend working a lot in Potions and reading History. Sorry I forgot to introduce them, my friend Hermione Granger and my cousin Tonks"

Ron glared at Hermione and Harry thought he heard him say " bookworm" at Hermione but he did not want to talk about that at that moment.

"What house do you think we will get in? I know that I will be in Gryffindor, all Weasleys were there" asked Ron

"I am not sure. My mum wants me either in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw although she thinks I could do well in Hufflepuff as well but Uncle Sirius think I will be in Gryffindor although he would laugh for a week if I get to Slytherin"

"Slytherin? Are you nuts Harry! That's the house where only dark wizards and witches go. You don't want to be there!"

"Excuse me? My mum was in that house and she is one of the kindest people I know!" cried Tonks

"I did not know but I was told that only evil ones go there. What was your mother's maiden name, Tonks?"

"Black, but that does not mean anything!"

Ron looked with shocked and some disgust. "Harry, you don't want to associate with the likes of her, she has a Black and they all were dark wizards."

"Ron, you might be my friend but don't insult Tonks! She is my friend and a cousin. And, nobody messes with my family!"

"So you prefer to spend time with her and not me? Fine, but I warn you that Blacks are evil"

"Just shut up, I don't want to talk to someone like you." Saying that, Harry pushed Ron out of the cart and just before he was about to close the door, he saw a boy passing buy."

"Hey, my name is Neville and I lost my toad. Have you seen him?"

"No, what is his name, Neville?"

"Trevor" he said

"Accio Trevor" the kids saw as the toad flew to them. Harry then explained that he knew that spell since it was very useful as he liked to sit on the sofa and instead of searching for missing things, he summoned them.

"Thank you, what is your name again?"

"My name is Harry Potter, and those two are my friends Hermione Granger and Tonks. Tonks is a Hufflepuff prefect. Also, before you came in, we were talking about in which house we would go and we had a fight with Ron Weasley"

"I think I will be in Hufflepuff" the boy said " I mean, I don't think I am brave or smart enough to be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw and I am not sure about Slytherin."

"I think you would do well in Hufflepuff as they are known for loyalty. Hermione here thinks that she will get to Ravenclaw but she told me that she wanted to be a Gryffindor"

"I don't think that I want to go to that house as Ron will be there and he did not seem to be a very pleasant person to be near to."

"O, and Neville if you do end up in Hufflepuff, I will be there and could help you if you would need assistance" told Tonks.

After the journey was approaching its end, the group decided that it was time to change into school robes. Boys exited the cabin and waited for girls to dress and then the girls repeated that. Soon, the train stopped and the friends walked towards the other first year olds.

"All right, I will see you later" told Tonks and went with other seven years. The trio climbed in the boat and travelled across the lake to the castle. They were then piled up in a group and saw an old woman dressed in green robes.

"Hello, my name is Professor McGonagall and I am Deputy Headmistress in Hogwarts. Soon you will get sorted into a house, where you will live during school. Now, please follow me." The row of children approached the teacher's table and saw the hat.

While Professor was saying names, Harry spotted a person he thought he would never see here. "What is he doing here?" he though. The next name Professor McGonagall called confirmed the identity of the person.

"Dursley, Dudley"

The boy went and put the hat on. After ten seconds he heard "Gryffindor!"

Harry was annoyed. Not only Ron would most probably be in Gryffindor, but his cousin as well. Brilliant, and all his hoped to live peacefully in Gryffindor vanished.

The roll call continued and it Hermione's name was called. She approached the hat and put it on. "Hmm, difficult. You have courage, loyalty, intelligence and cunning. Where to put you know?" "Ravenclaw, I want to go there," said Hermione. "Well, I would put you there but there is a better house for you. Slytherin!" the hat shouted.

Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter and Tonks were shocked. They did not expect that outcome. Hermione was shocked too but after she heard where she was placed, she went to the Slytherin table, knowing that her life was now a living hell. Soon, Neville was placed in Hufflepuff and Draco in Slytherin.

"Potter, Harry!" Harry heard McGonagall saying his name. He approached the hat and put it on. "Difficult, even more difficult. Your loyalty to your friends knows no limits and you are smart to be in Ravenclaw. Your have a lot of courage and would do well in Gryffindor. O, interesting, you have a cunning mind as well. Now, where would you think you wish to go?" "I was thinking about Gryffindor but now my cousin got there who hates my guts, as well as Ron, who will be there. Hermione got to the house she does not belong and I think I could go there to protect her but Draco lives there. If it were simple!" "So what is you decision, where do you want to be?" Harry whispered. "I agree with that choice" Then the hat shouted the house name.

A/N Sorry for little evil cliffhanger. Which house do you think Harry will end up in? About Ron- I don't really like his character and he was annoying at times in cannon. What do you think about Dudley being there? The reasoning will be explained later but now Harry gained one more enemy.


	6. New friends and fights

Chapter 6

"Slytherin" shouted the hat. Everyone but one person in the Great Hall was surprised. Except Harry, he was not since it was his decision after all. Harry looked at everybody and noticed interesting things. Albus Dumbldore choked on his lemon drop, one Professor with dark hair fainted, Professor McGonagall looked sad while the entire Gryffindor table looked betrayed, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw did not know what to make of situation while Slytherins were simply shocked. After shouting the house name, the hat whispered some thing, which only Harry could hear. "Well Mr. Potter, you just showed up that your courage is very big and you would have done well in Gryffindor but it was your choice"

Harry gave the hat to the Professor and walked quickly to the Slytherin table. He sat next to Hermione and looked at everybody. One face in particular amused him- it was Ron Weasley whose facial expressions showed disgust and some fear. The sorting ceremony continued and after Ron got into Gryffindor, it ended. Harry did not know what to make of the situation yet but at least he had one bully to deal with know and not two, one of whom was his cousin.

"I cannot believe that I got into Slytherin, Harry. I know that this house respects blood purity above all but as I recall no muggleborn has ever been sorted here."

"I don't know Hermione. The hat gave me two choices and I chose this house against Gryffindor since I saw you here and I thought hat someone just has to protect you in the house full of hate for muggleborns."

"Oh, Harry, it was so noble of you!" saying that, Hermione hugged her best friend.

"But also another reason I did not want to be in that house was that I knew that Ron will be there with my cousin and that would make my seven years of living here very miserable"

The two looked around and waited for the food to come out. Fortunately, it appeared very shortly and the students started their dinner meal. Harry noticed that black haired Professor recovered and sat at the table. He started eating and was surprised at what Hermione said next.

"Harry, look, this is Uncle Sev out there!"

"Uncle Sev? Where?"

"The one who is dressed in dark colors" That comment did not go unnoticed and some people who were sitting close by hear the comment.

"You mean that Professor Snape is your Uncle?" asked Malfoy

"Yes, what does he teach?"

"Potions. You surprise me Granger. You might not be a mudblood after all." Harry was about to punch Malfoy in the face but Hermione hold him.

"Don't, he is not worth it, after all it is Malfoy we are talking about" The two started discussing some material for one of their classes before they were interrupted by a girl with black hair, who was sitting next to Harry.

"Hello, my name is Daphne Greengrass. I hope you don't think of all Slytherins as being evil, are you Potter?"

"No, I just don't like that brat. I sometimes wonder who is more annoying- he or Ron Weasley"

"They look similar to me, both with their prejudices"

"Please call me Harry, I am your age, not your Professor"

"Then call me Daphne"

"Alright Daphne, could you tell us more about yourself?"

"Well, I am a pureblood, I like to study in the library and I like Potions"

"I am Hermione Granger, muggleborn although as Malfoy pointed out, I maybe a half blood, I like studying as well and I like Charms most"

"My name I Harry Potter and I like Potions and Defense. I saw a number of books about me in the bookstore and I can tell you that they are full of lies as my family never made any interviews."

The three friends continued talking about their interests at some point, the conversation was interrupted by Dumbledore, who told that it was time to go to common rooms. He also mentioned the danger of third floor. The trio stood up with the rest of student body and went to their dorm. They walked closely to each other, avoiding Malfoy. When they entered the common room, they saw the dominant colors of the room, which were silver and green, being everywhere. There were a number of sofas, all being made of dark wood and dark green leather. There was a large picture of a snake on one side of wall. It was all silver and looked ready to strike.

The friends found first year rooms and the girls went to their room, where they saw that they had three other roommates and Harry went to his room, which he was to share with Draco, his two minions, and two other boys. He entered the room and went to his bed. Draco was already there, looking at him and Harry did not like that he had to share a room with someone who hated him. The room filled up as four other boys entered and soon they all went to bed.

Next morning Harry woke up, got dressed and went to the Great Hall, where he met his two friends. They ate and then went to their first class, Potions.

"What do you think, will the class be a good one? I hope Uncle Sev will treat me as everybody else without showing me favoritism"

"Don't worry Hermione, from what I've heard, he loathes most people" told Daphne

Before the trio entered the class, they saw two people, whom they did not want to see. Ron Weasley and Dudley Dursley.

"Hello Potter, I see you are showing your true colors. I was right then, you are evil and Dudley agrees with me."

"Yeah, freak, nobody likes you. I bet they will even expel you soon"

"You know what Dudley, your family always told that me and my mum were freaks, but look at yourself, you are just like us, a wizard"

"Hey Dudley, lets show Potter that he is a brat, whom nobody likes. " With that, the two advanced towards Harry. Before they could hit him, the girls stood in front of him.

"You wont hit Harry because he is our friend"

"We don't care about you Miss Slytherins, we will fight you as well. As for you Potter, we are surprised that you need those dogs to protect yourself, but I suggest you keep them on your leech."

"You slimy!" The five students broke in a fight. Harry was knocked on the ground while Hermione was pulling hair out of Ron's head and Dudley hit Daphne, as he was about to hit Harry again. But after they saw him, their faces paled and the students calmed down. They saw Professor Snape.

A/N Draco is Harry's enemy although Ron and Dudley will be worse. I am still unsure of the main plot for 3rd year and am welcome to suggestions. Also, this is kind of early to ask, but which house do you think Ginny should be in? And should Harry become friends with either Draco, Ron or Dudley later?


	7. Potions and Quidditch

Chapter 7

"Well, what is going on in here?" Professor Snape approached five students

"Weasley and Dursley approached us said bad words about Harry. Then they wanted to beat him up but we interfered and Dursley hit my friend"

"Is it true, Greengrass?" Snape asked

"Yes, they did not want to leave us alone and everything Hermione said is true"

"In that case 10 points from Gryffindor each and a detention. Now, go in the class!"

The students followed Professor in the classroom. Harry heard Dudley as he whispered "This is not over, freak, we will beat you up one day when you are alone"

The students entered the classroom and sat at the desks. Harry, Hermione and Daphne sat next to each other, far from Ron and Dudley. Professor Snape entered and started reading the names of the students. When he read Harry Potter's name he stopped. He then commented that Harry was now a celebrity and asked him three questions about Potions, all of which to his surprise Harry answered.

"Five points to Slytherin" told Snape and continued his lesson. If it were any other student in Slytherin, he would have given more points but he did not want to give to Harry.

During the class, Harry saw that Ron put a wrong ingredient in the cauldron and started mixing the solution. Harry got worried, as he knew that the mixture would at least blow up.

"Weasley, be careful, you are doing it wrong, the potion will blow up"

"Shut up Potter" was Ron's reply as he started mixing the potion more eagerly. Draco Malfoy noticed too what Ron was doing and decided to make a joke. He threw a wrong ingredient while Ron was not looking and continued with his work. Next thing surprised Ron but not Harry and Draco knew that this was supposed to happen, sooner or later. The cauldron with the potion within it exploded and the mixture flew everywhere.

"Potter, why did not you tell Weasley that his potion was about to blow up?"

"I did Professor, but he did not want to listen"

"It is true," told a couple other students, most of whom were in Slytherin.

"Then in that case two points to Slytherin" Snape gave points reluctantly "and twenty points from Gryffindor" The class continued

After the class ended the trio continued with their classes. The girls really enjoyed Charms, as it was an interesting class. Transfiguration was difficult but Hermione managed to transform matchstick into needle. Defense against Dark Arts was easy. During Herbology they met Neville, who joined their group. Harry introduced Daphne to Neville. Then they went to History of Magic.

"So how were other classes?" asked Harry his friend, who did not even bother to pay attention in that class as it was a boring monotone lecture spoken by a ghost.

"It was good. I did not like Potions with Professor Snape but it helps a lot that I am not in Gryffindor. Transfiguration is hard but at least Professor is fair. I also received a remembrall from my Gran. What about you, has anything interesting happened?"

"Nothing much except that during Potions my cousin and Weasley attacked us. Then, Weasley blew up his cauldron because he did not listen that he put a wrong ingredient."

In the end of the week, Slytherin had flying lessons with Gryffindor. Harry was not very happy since he would see Ron and Dudley there. Somehow, getting Ron in trouble made Malfoy more tolerable towards the trio and especially Harry but he still threw occasional insults towards the group.

The morning of flying lessons was nice. The weather was chilly but the coldness was tolerable if enough clothing was put on. Harry met his two friends in the common room.

"Hey Hermione, Daphne, are you ready for flying? I cannot wait, as it seemed interesting while I flew on a broom at Weasleys. Do you think you would be good?"

"I don't know for the first time in my life, Harry. I cannot learn that from a book and I am unsure how I will perform. But I think I should do fine"

"And I had some practice flying and although I am not bad at it, I don't enjoy using the broom as the mode of transportation"

The Silver Trio left the common room and headed to breakfast. They ate the meal and soon headed outside. They were amount the first people to show up; gradually everyone arrived and the class was about to start. Madam Hooch arrived and instructed on how to use a broom and then two groups of first years, Slytherins and Gryffindors were up in the air. Hermione was terrified of flying, as did some other students. Others like Daphne, were ok with using the broom but were not real great at it. While in the air the trio saw Dudley and how he tried to get higher than a foot above the ground. His large size and weight did not allow his to get high to fly.

While Harry originally thought that Ron was good at flying, he saw that Ron was not as good when compared to others. Harry did not like to say that, but he thought that Malfoy was one of the best flyers there. "So Weasley, cannot use the broom properly?"

Ron felt insulted and flew towards Harry, who dodged and made a couple circles around Ron. The redhead did not like that Harry insulted him and tried to get close to Harry to throw him off the broom but could not get close. In the end Harry got tired of that and circled around Ron closely, which confused him and even made him fall. Slytherins and some Gryffindors laughed and Ron felt embarrassed. He could not tolerate his enemy been better than him.

"I want to have a wizarding duel with you. I name Dudley my second."

"My second is Hermione. See you tonight in trophy room" Saying that, Harry left Ron to his thoughts and rejoined the trio. Hermione looked concerned.

"You will not do this! It is a violation of school rules!"

"Relax Hermione, I am not planning to go but I will inform Filch about possible students being in trophy room at midnight."

"Harry! That's so…" Hermione did not finish as Draco Malfoy interrupted her.

"Well done Potter, maybe Slytherin is a right place for you after all. But I still tell you not to be friends with people like her" He pointed at Hermione and left.

Next morning brought great satisfaction to Harry. He learned that Ron and Dudley got caught by Filch and lost many points as well as getting detentions. But the second source of news was more shocking- Dumbldore announced that first years were now allowed to be on Quidditch teams, provided their satisfactory flying skills. Harry then was approached by Snape, who had a smile on his face, which scared Harry and meant one thing- trouble.

"Potter, as of know you will be a seeker for Slytherin team. If you don't practice enough and don't play well, you will receive detentions. I know how much you don't like this house and that is the main reason I want to be on the team, not counting your actual talent in the game. I like that you would use your skills for Slytherin team. And, the first game of the year is Gryffindor vs. Slytherin" saying that, Snape left. Harry was left with thinking on how unfair life was- he would need to play for the team he did not wish to play and soon playing against the one, in which he wished to be.

A/N

The reason why Voldemort did not want to kill Harry's parents here besides Snape's request is some info I found he asked both Potters( even Lily!) to join Death Eaters( harry wiki). I see that it was kind of weird scene but I needed it for the plot. Even in the cannon he told "Step aside" he did not kill Lily outright.

Hermione fits somehow in Slytherin- she has cunning mind and resourcefulness eg Polyjuice Potion, taking care of Umbridge problem, as well as wanting to proof herself (Slytherin trait).

about Tonks- she was in Hufflepuff ( harry wiki)

about Ginny- wait for 2nd year to start...

Next chapter: Halloween


	8. The Halloween

Chapter 8

Harry Potter and the two girls were walking from one of their classes to their dorm when the ladder changed its direction. They saw a cat and new it was trouble. The three run at the hallway and came to a door.

"It is locked" told Harry

"Alohomora" told Hermione. The door opened and the trio opened the door. What they saw there scared them- they saw a large three headed dog looking at them. It started barking and got ready to attack them. The trio screamed and run out of the room; they barely escaped as the dog's heads were in the place where they were originally standing, trying to bite them. After that they went to Slytherin common room and collapsed on their beds. That dog was still haunting them and they were a bit overwhelmed by it.

September passed as well as October. Harry was reflecting on what has happened during his first two months at the school. He got friends with Daphne and Neville, received Seeker position in Slytherin, made enemies with Ron and Dudley and saw the three headed dog. The memory of what happened afterwards was still fresh in his mind.

Harry remembered how he sent his mum a letter telling on what has happened. In one of them he told about the Cerberus. Naturally, Lily came to Hogwarts and showed some of her temper; Harry was amused as he knew by then of famous Weasley temper. "Something to research" thought Harry.

But as Harry remembered, the old Headmaster explained to Lily that something very valuable was guarded in the school and that the dog could not go, despite all Lily's protests the dog stayed.

Halloween was approaching and everyone was getting excited. Harry had something to keep his mind off what the dog was guarding and was happy about the holiday.

On Halloween day Slytherin had Charms with Gryffindors. They were learning about a spell, which could lift objects. Hermione as usual got it on her first try and then showed to her friends and a couple other people how to do it. With her help, both Harry and Daphne also managed to lift the feather.

"Thank you Hermione." Told Harry to his friend. When the class ended, one person passed and they could hear as he said "show off". It was Ron Weasley. Harry ignored the comment and the trio went to their room.

At the fest Harry finally noticed that Hermione did not show up to the feast. He saw Daphne there but not Hermione. Harry knew that his friend was organized and that she would be at the feast by then.

"Daphne, have you seen Hermione?"

"Last time I saw her was in the room. She told me she needed to go to the bathroom and did not return. I thought that she then went to the Great Hall after that. They both sat and started eating. The food was delicious and Harry was enjoying himself but he also was thinking of what happened to Hermione.

At one point in the meal everyone saw as Professor Quirell ran into the hall screaming that there was a troll in the dungeons. After that he fainted. People screamed and everything was in chaos.

"Quiet!" told Dumbldore "Go to your rooms with prefects and the teachers come with me." The prefects then went to their respective rooms, followed by the students.

"Daphne" spoke Harry " Hermione does not know about the troll" The two looked at each other and ran to the bathroom where Hermione was. They hoped she was fine.

As they entered the bathroom, they sensed a very disturbing smell. Harry thought that the creature did not have a bath for a year, it was that bad. There was also a lot of dirt on the floor, as troll did not clean his legs either.

The two students saw horrified Hermione looking at the troll, who was much taller than her. Its looked menacing and was waving its club, trying to hit and kill Hermione. Harry and Daphne were horrified too at the sight of the troll but Harry remained level headed in that stressful situation.

"Experlliarmus!" He shouted. He read about that hex a couple of weeks ago in a Defense book for higher years and wanted to know how it would work. He saw that he accomplished his result- the troll's rather large club flew a couple of meters away from the creature and it looked confused.

"Run!" cried Harry and three students started running before the troll realized on what happened to it. It eventually found his club, lifted it and started chasing the students. The chase continued until the Silver Trio bumped into a wall. There was no escape. The troll caught up with them and lifted its arm.

"What do we do now?" asked Harry. He did not like this situation, in just a few seconds they would be killed.

"What about using a spell we know? Something that would be effective?"

"Of course! Lets do the charms spell we learned today!" Hermione told.

As the club was about to hit them, the trio screamed the spell and the club flew in the air. The troll was not the brightest creature out there and thus it got confused. Before it realized what happened, gravity started acting on the club again but now its final destination was its owner's head. After the hit, the troll fell on the floor. Just as it lost consciousness, three Professors arrived, McGonagall, Snape and Quirell.

"What is going on here, why are you not in the common room?" asked the elderly woman.

"Professor, we did not see Hermione at the feast and when we heard the news of the troll, we had to tell our friend as she was absent from the feast"

"Miss Granger, why were you not present at Halloween feast?"

"After my Charms class, Ronald Weasley made a rude remark to me that I am a show off and it hurt me. I was crying in the bathroom until the troll came. Then, Harry and Daphne rescued me. Harry disarmed the troll and we run until we got cornered. We then used "Wingardium Leviosa" successfully and knocked it out."

"Is it true, Miss Greengrass?" Asked Professor Snape

"Yes, we are sorry that we did not report to the stuff but we had to tell Hermione about the troll"

"In that case you will each get five points for successfully disarming and defeating a full frown troll. Now, off you go to bed." The trio left Professors and went to their common room.

Next day Ronald Weasley was not happy. He received a week of detentions with Professor Snape for being a git and endangering life of a fellow student. Ron knew why he got those detentions and he blamed it on Potter. Ron was very angry and decided to form an "anti-Potter" gang, which already included him, Dudley and a couple of other Gryffindors, who were annoyed that Potter did not join Gryffindor House. On the other side, Draco Malfoy was very pleased that his rival Ron Weasley got punished and started acting even more polite towards Harry.


	9. Quidditch

Quidditch season started and Harry was nervous. He did well in practices and he knew he was at least somewhat good. But he was nervous for another reason. Harry really wanted to be a Gryffindor but he made a choice to be a Slytherin since his best friend was there and he needed to help her. Harry knew that he would be playing for Slytherin against Gryffindor and he really wanted to be on the other team.

Harry walked to the Quidditch pitch to get ready for the game. His team captain was giving instruction which made Harry bored as he did not need to know them, after all his job was to find Snitch and then the game would be over. After a boring lecture, people sat on the brooms and flew from the tent.

The commentator was telling names of people playing. Finally he said "Potter". Some people shouted as they were surprised that a first year was playing. The Gryffindor were angry that Potter was playing for Slytherins. And the majority of Slytherins was not amused about that either. Harry looked down and saw that only a small group of people supported him outside of stuff, who was impartial. The group contained his mom Lily Potter, Hermione, Daphne, Neville, Tonks, and two remaining Marauders. Harry could see that Draco Malfoy and Ron Easley were jealous and the redhead was also angry.

The game continued and Harry was flying, looking for Snitch. Half an hour has passed already but Harry still did not see the ball. He was flying around when he saw a bludger flying at him. Harry ducked and the ball passed him. Harry could hear commentator, who appeared to be a Gryffindor to tell occasionally that Potter was a traitor but was stopped by Professor McGonagall.

After an hour passed, Harry got tired. He looked around and still did not see snitch. He heard the score being hundred thirty to hundred ten with Gryffindors leading. Suddenly, after another search for the ball, the broom went crazy and started spinning. Harry had now a lot of difficulty staying on the broom.

Meanwhile, Hermione got concerned on what was happening. She clearly saw that someone was jinxing a broom.

"Mrs Potter, Harry's broom is being cursed" Lily Potter then noticed it too. The women looked around the stadium and saw Snape moving his mouth. "That son of a " said Lily but was interrupted by Hermione.

"We need to do something. I have an idea." The girl told her plan and Lily was shocked as she never thought that Hermione would do such a thing. But then again, spending time with Harry made her less relaxed on the rules. Hermione left and soon after that Lily saw that Snape's robes were on fire. The teachers were surprised and some even got knocked down before the fire was put down. The next thing Lily saw was Harry sitting tightly on the broom.

Harry flew and saw the ball. However he then received two bludgers sent by Weasley twins. They hit Harry and he fell of the broom. Luckily for him, he was only two feet above ground and the hit was not very strong. After he stood up he felt sick and vomited something, which was in his mouth. He then saw Snitch in his hands. Slytherin won to the dissapointment of the majority of school and the score was three hundred to hundred sixty.

Harry stood on the ground and saw that couple people approached him. Hermione reached him first, jumping and hugging him, which caused them both to fall on the ground. They then stood up and looked at other people.

"Well done Potter, you exceeded my expectations" Harry was happy that even Snape said something nice to him. But then he heard angry voice of Lily Potter and he knew that his mom could be scary at times, especially when protecting her child.

"Severus Snape, why did you jinx my son's broom, so that he would fall?"

"Lily, I was not jinxing, I was saving him. Even if I hat his guts because he resembles James Potter, I cannot kill him as he is your son and I cannot hurt you"

"If not you, then whom?"

"That I do not know." Snape left the field to work on his potions. Lily went and hugged her son.

"Harry, I was so worried. But at least Hermione helped you. She put a fire on Snape's robes" Harry looked at Hermione and both of them laughed.

Harry, Hermione and Lily were walking behind others as they were discussing the match when Harry noticed his cousin crying in the bushes. He dismissed that as non important and thought that Dudley just did not like Gryffindor's loss. But something was telling him there was more to it. However, he dismissed thoughts about Dudley and went to Slytherin common room.

People in Slytherin were divided on their reaction to Harry. Some were still not happy that he was in their house but it seemed that they were in the minority. The majority of people were cheering for their new Seeker, who helped them beat Gryffindor. There were many Harry Potter posters around and some of the girls were eyeing hungry as if they wanted to claim treasure. Hermione noticed that and grabbed her friend's arm.

After the party finished, only Harry, Lily and Hermione were left in the common room. The room was extremely messy with food lying everywhere.

"Mom, Hermione said that Professor Snape is her Uncle. How can it be possible? I mean Professor Snape is a wizard and Hermione is a Muggleborn."

"It is possible that Severus has a sister or brother, who is Hermione's parent. There is a relation potion available, which can determine if two people are related. It takes a while to brew but I think it will be ready by Christmas."

"Thanks Mrs Potter"

"Hermione, it is Lily for you. I have known you since you were so little. " Lily stayed with her son for a bit more and then left.

A/N

I realized that although Harry and Hermione are in Slytherin, they are on the Light Side , allied with Dumbledore. Same goes for Weasleys. And these 2 groups will be in Order of Phoenix!


	10. Christmas Eve and new family members

Chapter 10

Semester was passing by quickly and Harry noticed that soon it would be Christmas day. His classes were great and he was doing fine. In his mid semester report he saw that he had an Outstanding in Defense, an Exceeds Expectations in Charms and Transfiguration, and an Acceptable in Potions, Herbology and Astronomy. He was quite proud of his grades, although Potions was a surprise to him as Professor Snape did not like him.

When the holidays started, Harry invited his friends to come over. He sent a letter to Neville, Daphne, Tonks and Weasleys, of which three replied yes. Unfortunately, Ginny could not go as their family was suspicious of him being in Slytherin and Ron by now loathed him.

Harry entered an apartment in the train and sat there. Neville, Tonks, Hermione and Daphne soon joined him.

"I cannot believe that Professor Snape gave me a mere Exceeds Expectations in Potions! He gave an Outstanding to Draco Malfoy!"

"Don't worry Hermione, we all know that your knowledge of Potions is vast. You would get an Outstanding in OWL Potions so don't worry"

"Thanks Daph"

"So how are the rest of grades?" asked Harry "Do you have your strongest academic areas as of yet?"

"Well, I am good at everything but I think my strongest area is Transfiguration" answered the bushy haired girl

"Mine is Charms."

"I am good in Herbology."

"My best one is Defense" replied Tonks

"Mine too. Professor Quirell said that I am one of the best in the year, sharing the position with Draco Malfoy."

Soon the trolley came with food and the group took some of it. After eating one of the first chocolate frogs, he found a card with Dumbledore face on there. He read the description and put it into his bag.

In the evening, the train approached Kings Cross station. They saw their parents, who took their arms and the group soon apparated to their homes

"Harry! It is nice to see you! How was semester?"

Harry told about his semester. He told about the troll and how it attacked Hermione. Harry also complained about Professor Snape and his mom told him that she would send a letter to her former friend.

On Christmas Eve Lily Evans invited the parents of Harry's friends to dinner. While the kids were playing and talking, Lily was meeting the adults.

"Welcome back Dan, Emma. How is your dentist practice?"

"It is going well, Lily"

Lily then greeted Tonks family. Then she saw another couple, which she did not know.

"I am Richard Greengrass and this is my wife Athena. We are parents of Daphne, who is a friend of Harry."

"Nice to meet you. I heard that Harry, Daphne and Hermione defeated a troll." They continued their conversation and soon all adults sat at the table, which included two Marauders, Lily Potter, Ted and Andromeda Tonks, Grangers, Greengrass family and Augusta Longbottom.

Meanwhile the kids were discussing their year once again. Harry looked at one bottle and saw "Heritage Potion" written on it.

"Hey Hermione, look, mom made the potion. Now you need to put your blood in it and it will show your family within two generations."

"That's great! Now I can know if Snape is related to me although I hope that he is not"

Harry took and opened the bottle and Hermione put some of her blood in there. The mixture glowed and then a small family tree appeared above the bottle.

"Let's see" said Hermione as she started tracing her family starting from her name as the rest of the group watched. "Here is my name and here are my parents. She then looked closer and saw that each of her parents had a sibling, of which one of them had a child.

"My mom's brother is" she paled "Severus Snape! How is that possible?"

There was a silence in the room for a while after which Harry broke it. "Hermione, it is possible that your mother is a squib and a sister to our git of a Professor.

"It is possible. I will ask Professor Snape if he had any sisters." She then looked at her father line. "I see that he has a brother who married Merope Riddle and has a daughter Merope as well. I did not know that I have a cousin."

"Maybe your father and Uncle are on bad terms. But know we know that you have interesting heritage"

The kids soon came to the table and Harry told the results of the test to his mum. She was surprised and then told the Grangers about what she found. Dan Granger confirmed that he had a brother with whom he was on bad terms. Emma Granger told that she did have a brother, who occasionally showed up at her home and was named Severus but she did not know that he was a wizard.

The dinner was excellent, after which the company split and went to their homes. Harry had a lot of information to process as he just learned that his friend was a half blood and that she was related to a git. He wondered how such wonderful girl could be a nice to Snape. With those thoughts he fell asleep.

A/N Merope Riddle, Hermione's Uncle and Merope Granger are OC. Hermione's Uncle will not be a part of plot really, he will be just mentioned a couple times. Hermione's cousin is a witch and will be a minor character. Hermione's Aunt... she will have a bigger role. I think it is clear who her parents are, at least her father [of Merope Riddle] but I would like to hear what you think. Hermione's cousin would be joining Hogwarts in Harry's 2nd year.


	11. Uncle Snape

Chapter 11

Next day Harry woke up and looked at his presents. He had a decent pile of things lieng in the corner. Harry took one of the biggest ones and opened it. Inside was a book about some exotic plants. The next present was from the twins, who gave him some candy which they used fro pranks. Harry tried one and his ears turned blue. From Daphne he received a box of chocolates. Tonks gave him a book on Defense against Dark Arts. And finally Hermione gave him a book about Quidditch as well as a nice card. Harry also received a small box of Berti Botts candy from Ginny.

After breakfast Harry decided to study ahead to prepare for exams. Hermione came over and the two started studying Potions first as it was their hardest class, not that they were bad at it, but the Professor was being unfair towards them.

During lunch the two were surprised to see their least favorite person in Hogwarts. Severus Snape was standing in the dining room. Lily Potter was also there talking to him. The two adults noticed that they had company.

"Hey Harry, how was studying? Hello Hermione. I called Severus to talk about his relations to Hermione Granger, who appears to be his niece"

Harry glared at the Potion Master but did not say anything. "Is it true?" asked Hermione

"The potion is never wrong. I do remember that I had a sister called Emma Snape many years ago but I did not know of your connection to her. She was a squid and my father was angry with her for that, when she was eleven and did not receive her letter, my parents were disappointed. I brought a pensive with me to show you the memory"

Professor Snape took the memory from his head and put it inside. He told to the group that they needed to touch the memory so that they could experience it. The group did that and soon four people were watching at what had happened many years ago.

Two children, a boy and a girl were sitting in the room. The boy had black hair and looked almost exactly like adult Snape although the boy was more innocent looking. The girl had a lot of resemblance to Hermione with same bushy hair, although it was dark blonde and she was shyer than Hermione.

"How was your time with Lily? I already see my future sister in law"

"Stop it" Severus blushed. Now Harry was surprised, as he could never imagine Snape blushing.

"Dad was angry at me today that I did not receive the letter" she cried

"You did not? How is that Possible? Miss Half blood Prince cannot be a squib!"

"I am sorry Sev." The two siblings hugged. They broke up after they saw a large man entering the room.

"You two here? Emma, how could you even stay in this house, you are a disgrace to this family!" shouted the man

"But dad!"

"Shut up. From this day you are disowned from being a Snape. "He moved towards the girl but young Severus Snape blocked him

"You dare challenge me boy?" the man was angry, took off his belt and hit his son very hard. Then he pushed him away and took his wand.

"Obliviate!" he shouted at the girl. The memory then faded.

As the group finished watching the memory, Professor Snape continued the story. " So after this I learned that my sister was dropped at some orphanage and I never saw her again. I always wanted to reunite with her but I never knew where she was. And know I see that I have a small know-it-all niece"

"Well, I suggest for you to go see your sister. She is our neighbor. But first I would like to hear an apology"

"Why do I need to apologize? Potter likes to break rules and sometimes disrupts the class. I will punish him as I see fit. And Hermione, even though you are my niece that does not excuse you from behaving disruptive either." He then left to see his sister.

"Such a git"

"Language Harry"

"Hermione, I cannot believe that you are related to him" The two kids started their dinner after which they continued their work on Potions. They were already ahead but they still decided to study as they knew that Snape would not change.

A/N

I decided to give Snape some more tragic stuff in his past. After all, he is one of the most complicated people in Harry Potter!


	12. Slytherin vs Gryffindor

Chapter 12

The Christmas had ended and the students came back to school for the rest of the academic year. Most of the students did not want to come back as they enjoyed their stay with their families but some like Hermione Granger really wished to return. Hermione in particular had two reasons: to continue increasing her magical knowledge as well as finding out on what the dog was guarding.

The welcoming feast was pleasant although the trio was not as relaxed as the other students were. Draco was still behaving as if he was the most single important person in Hogwarts but he annoyed the group less which somewhat surprised the three friends. However, Ronald Weasley was on a receiving end of Malfoy's antiques and the ginger wizard took offence at everything the blond one told him, in particular about the economic status about Weasely family.

In the middle of January Harry was walking alone in the castle after the classes were over, when he heard noises. The boy slowed down his pace and walked carefully to the place where a number of people were arguing. When he turned around the corner he saw Draco Malfoy facing Ron, Dudley and Seamus shouting insults at each other. "That's it, this blond slimy snake will get what he deserves" said Ronald "Dudley, could you beat him up?"

"My pleasure Ron" Harry's cousin smiled and got ready for activity he enjoyed. The three Gryffindors overpowered the Slytherin Prince and pushed him in the corner and then started to beat the boy up.

"Stop!" Harry made his presence known. He did not like Draco much but as his mother always said, if he could help someone, he should have done that. And this was the time when he needed to help the victim. Harry took his wand and repelled the three students.

"You are dead!" shouted Dudley and threw himself at Harry. Harry knew that his cousin was stronger than him but not more powerful. As Dudley approached, Harry ducked and shot a repelling charm that sent the boy flowing to the wall. Then, he got Draco's wand by using "Accio" charm and threw it to the Slytherin.

The boy was confused but nodded. The two Slytherins then pointed their wands at three Gryffindors; their opponents did the same and the magical fight began. Ron and Seamus like the Slytherins were using mostly magic but Dudley was like a tank, running at the snakes trying to crush them.

The fight continued. The two sides did not have advantages over each other although Harry showed some really good spells. Nobody was winning or even getting a slight advantage. Harry then reconsidered his tactics and jumped to Draco. "Lets use Transfiguration skills that we have against them." Draco nodded and they created a plan.

Dudley run himself at Draco when he realized that his feet got glued to the floor. He looked at the ground and saw that he was standing in a small lake of glue and boogers; he could not move his legs. Draco then sent a repelling charm at Ron, who flew a good distance of ten meters before he almost hit Harry; the raven-haired boy then sent Ron towards the ceiling while Ronald was still flying away from Draco. The boy then dropped on the floor and hit Seamus; the three Gryffindors were defeated.

"Why did you help me?" asked Draco. He was really surprised that Harry Potter, the boy who lived, helped him, Draco Malfoy when their families were not friendly with each other at best and trying to kill the other at worst.

"Because I cannot stand the bullying and it does not matter who is the victim. One thing is the verbal abuse and the other is direct physical force." Harry stated

Before either could say anything more, they saw Professor Snape standing behind them. He looked angry and it seemed that the castle would explode. "What had happened here? Did you physically hurt Mr Malfoy?" he asked Harry.

"No, sir, I saved Draco and then helped him fight these three Gryffindors."

"Is that true Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Snape wondered

"Yes it is." Harry knew that for Draco it was hard to say but he was glad that the blond Slytherin was grateful at least a little for the help Harry provided while the two fought the Gryffindor boys.

"Well then, five points to Slytherin for helping a fellow Housemate." He said to Harry and the boy was surprised. "And thirty points off each from you three for attacking my student and a detention with me tomorrow" He took of the goo that was on the floor and dismissed the boys.

"This is not over Potter!" said Ron before the Gryffindor lions left

"I know" the two groups parted and the two boys returned to their dorm. During the next week their friendship grew and the final spark was the second Quidditch game where Harry used his seeker skills to make Slytherins win with a score of two fifty to eighty against Hufflepuff. Draco now tolerated Hermione as well. Harry was happy that at least someone was friendlier to him. Draco slowly integrated himself in the silver trio and occasionally studied with them.


	13. Norbert

Chapter 13

February passed quickly and the third month of the year 1992 had started. The snow was still on the grounds, as the temperature outside did not rise until about the end of April. The student still wore warm clothes as otherwise their hairs on their skin stood up as the cold winds swam in the mountains' area.

The student body was somewhat bored still as nothing interesting had occurred in the castle; the only interesting thing that was going on was the ever lasting rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin, which became at times quite violent as Draco and Harry's group of Slytherins fought against Ron and Dudley's one. In one of such days a total number of ten people entered the care of the nurse; among the casualties there were even two Hufflepuffs and one Ravenclaw as some people from other two houses decided to either help the main groups in either Gryffindor or Slytherin, or they were the unfortunate bystanders caught between the two enemy camps.

On the first March weekend, Harry was sitting in the library studying his three fellow Slytherins. As they were one of the best students in the year with Hermione being on the top, they did not receive a lot of homework but they got an extra assignment since they worked in their classes well. Harry was doing his Potions homework, as it was one of his most favorite classes since his mother Lily taught him a lot about potions; Draco was reading the book on the Defense and the girls were working on their Charms assignment.

At some point Harry heard some whispering between his whale sized cousin and Ronald Weasley. They were whispering, which did not let him to hear much of what the two boys have said, but he recalled the words "The Philosopher's Stone" and "Hagrid's Dragon" a lot. Soon the two boys were kicked out of the library as they apparently decided to eat inside it.

"Guys, I think the two morons from Gryffindor are up to something. I heard that they learned something about "The Philosopher's Stone" as well as Hagrid getting a dragon."

"We should tell a teacher about this as it is possible that someone is trying to still that stone. I spied on the two lions and learned that they think that Professor Snape wants the stone to himself"

"I want what for myself" The four Slytherins saw the Head of the Slytherin's house standing behind them. If he did not stand to the group very closely, he could be even mistaken for a Dementor as he also wore a black cloak and had quite an intimidating look.

"Hello Professor Snape, we learned that Weasley and Dursley learned about the Philosopher's stone and think that you wish to steal it. " Daphne Greengrass told the information she just learned to the Potions Master with a serious face.

"I will look at that matter. I can reassure you that I am not going to steal the stone and I think that it is well protected especially by me; all Professors put protections on the stone"

"Thank you Professor" said Harry and the Professor left the quartet. The four students were unsure of how well the protections were but they were almost positive that their Head would not steal the stone.

"Who do you think will try to steal the stone?" asked Hermione, as she too was curious. She then wrote the list of al the teachers in Hogwarts and crossed the ones she thought would not try to steal the object. However, it did not help that some Professors were unknown to them, like the one teaching the Ancient Runes, but after a lot of thinking the group decided that it was either one of the unknown Professors or their Defense Professor.

In the evening, Harry and Draco decided to sneak and see if the two lions would check their dragon in Hagrid's hut as they thought. At first, the blonde wanted to get Hagrid in trouble but after a long debate Harry convinced his friend to let Hagrid out of the trouble for nor. The two put the invisibility cloak on and walked towards the hut.

The light was lit on and the two Slytherins could hear voices. They peaked inside the room and saw a small dragon sitting on the table, trying to put everything on fire. "I talked to Charlie and he will bring some of the dragon keepers to take the dragon." The two Slytherins overheard that and run to the castle; they waited where the dragon would be carried.

After an hour passed, the two Gryffindors took a box from Hagrid's hut and started carrying the dragon towards the castle. The Slytherins fired a couple of most basic spells and the two lions dropped on the ground with their package hitting the rock; that produced a long high pitched noises by a small dragon, who became rather unconformable in his surroundings as it woke up. The dragon then shot fire from its mouth and the surrounding vegetation was soon in flames. The two Slytherins quickly escaped from the scene.

Next morning the Gryffindor house was furious that it lost a hundred points due to two students spending time outside of the house at nighttime as well as carrying a dragon. Hagrid was drunk at the time and could not get blame onto himself, so it all went on the boys as they were charged with having a dragon. Harry was also glad to see that Severus Snape gave both Harry and Draco twenty points each for "cunning and sucsessful humiliation of their rivals"


	14. Lily's help

Chapter 14

"I am sorry Mr. Potter, but the stone is well protected, I can assure you in that. Now, please go and enjoy this wonderful day," Deputy Headmistress Professor McGonagall had told the group that they should not worry about the stone.

The Slytherin quartet knew that the Professor was wrong but the teacher did not take their worries very seriously. The group needed to find someone who could help them. "What should we do? Professor McGonagall does not want to help us, and I feel that the attempt to steal it will be very soon."

"I know Harry, they treat us as little kids, but we can handle this ourselves"

"Draco, I don't think we should handle this ourselves. Maybe we will need to ask someone else as the adults might have a point."

"Hermione, they are not always right. Hell, I feel that my father is not always right as you seem to be OK to hang out with despite your Muggle upbringing."

"Thank you Draco, but I feel that none of the teacher will help and I do not want Professors to tell us not to think about this." The girl looked down at the floor with sadness in her face. It seemed that Hermione has almost lost all the hope.

"That's it Hermione!" Harry exclaimed and then smiled. The three other Slytherins were surprised to see Harry so cheerful and were a bit confused as there seemed to be no way for them to get help.

"Who said we need a teacher to help us in our dangerous quest?" Harry said that with funny voice as if stating something simple and funny.

"We could ask my mom to help us," Harry then stated as he stood in a proud stance. The group was shocked at that idea, as it seemed like a reasonable suggestion for them to try.

"That can actually work and we will get help from an adult" the boys looked at each other as if mentally agreeing on the fact that their friend should have trusted authorities a little less fanatically.

The group went to ask Professor McGonagall once again. As they stepped in the room, the elderly Professor looked a rather annoyed that the group had returned again to torment her to get help. "What can I do for you this time, stone seekers?" "Well, we are not thinking about the stone anymore madam. Harry had invited us to his house, so that we could spend this nice day at his place, where we could play many games and visit our parents" Hermione talked slowly and looked the Professor straight in the eyes. The girl knew that the Professor would not expect her to lie directly in front of her Professor, and she used that fact to get what she wanted.

"Very well, you could use my Floo system to get to that house" The group walked towards the fireplace and one by one disappeared with smoke. The journey was quick and the group soon saw themselves falling on the floor in Harry's house.

"Hello mum" Harry said when he saw his mother Lily Evans standing next to the fireplace looking at four kids dressed in green and silver with occasional raven grey dust islands on their bodies.

"Is something wrong Harry? Why did you come home today with your friends? I was not expecting you to show up today" Lily Evans was surprised to see her son landing on her carpet but she was no fool. After living with Sirius and Remus for years, she knew that if Harry did something unexpected, he was on to something, and usually that meant a new prank.

"Mum, we need help." Harry then explained the stone situation to his mother and the four children looked at the red haired woman. Harry hoped that his mother was in a good mood that day otherwise they would get in a serious trouble.

"Alright, but you need to listen to me carefully. As you told me, Professor McGonagall told you four that the stone is well protected. From that I can deduce that she knows that there are some magical protections put to guard the stone. I think that all teachers, at least some put their share of protections. As you mentioned the dog, that would be Hagrid's protection. I bet that there will also be Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and Defense Protections put in place as well as one done by Albus. My intuition tells me that there will be no extremely difficult challenges as it feels that this is Headmaster's test to see how Harry will fare with it"

"He would not do that, he is Professor Dumbledore, our Headmaster" Hermione wanted to continue on telling how great Dumbledore was as well as why they should listen to him since he had a lot of authority but Lily Evans interrupted the girl's speech.

"Hermione, I need to tell you that not all authority figures are ought to be trusted. Some are corrupt and some just make mistakes. Your Headmaster did a few in his youth, as he is just a man although a powerful one. So, please, respect authority but also always have some critical thinking. And I am sure that Headmaster does not mean Harry harm but he just probably is curious on how Harry will perform the tasks that this thirst for curiosity had blinded him" The girl thought about what the elder witch had told her.

"With this out of the way, we need to discuss how to succeed in every task. I am not sure on what you need to do with the Cerberus but I can guess what the other tasks would be. Herbology will be about plants, the ones that could be deadly and that will slow you down. Judging from your knowledge, it will probably be Devil's Snare, as I cannot think of anything deadlier from year 1."

"That plant can be destroyed by fire" Hermione replied confidently. The older woman agreed with her.

"I also can almost be perfectly sure that my old friend will provide Potion riddle to confuse you all. He is great with logic and unfortunately many wizards have problems with that but I know that you will perform well" She looked at Hermione approvingly.

"What will the other Professors provide?" asked Harry as he, like the others were curious.

"Well, I am also very certain that Defense barrier will be the troll as one already attacked you before and you defeated him in the battle. I do not know what McGonagall will provide but it will have to be something with her subject. And I am not sure with Flitwick's barrier either but I think it will have to do something with flying on the broom and levitating spells as you studied it in your year. And I do not know what Albus will put there." After the advice, Lily trained the group with some other important spells, like destruction and attraction ones, since they could be very useful in their journey.

"I wish you luck" the four returned to Hogwarts and relaxed for the rest of the day as they were tired and needed to prepare for their trials.

A/N: Chapter 15 will deal with the stone and then the story will proceed towards summer, where some interesting changes to cannon will be made.


	15. The Hunt for the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter 15

After their visit to Lily Evans-Potter, the group studied in the library even more, trying to get even more knowledge that they would need to defeat Voldemort's lackey and get to the stone first. They already told their friends in other Houses about their quest and Neville agreed to help them with dangerous plants as well as Tonks showed some Defense techniques she knew. By the end of April, Harry was sure that their group was ready, now they only needed to know how to get past the three-headed dog.

On one Spring day Harry was walking alone when he saw Hagrid, who was sitting on the grass in front of his house. The large man was drinking tea. "Hey Hagrid, how has your day been?" Harry asked his friend.

"Good to see you Harry. I just returned from one of the bars in Hogsmead, the wizard village around here, and talked to a very interesting man. He said that he was a traveller who studied rare and dangerous animals and we had a rather long chat about dragons. He asked me if there are any dangerous beasts here and I told him that beside the everyday trolls, centaurs, acromantulas and unicorns that live in the forest, one Cerberus lives here in the castle. He asked me how it was possible to keep such a dangerous animal in the castle but I told him that you just need to sing to Fluffy or play some music and he would fall asleep." Hagrid just realized what he has said but he could not take his words back.

"Thank you Hagrid" Harry replied and run away. He saw that the tall large man was angry but he could not do anything by this point. The boy quickly ran towards his friends, who were sitting in the library, memorizing more information that they would need.

"Guys, I just learned that Hagrid told to one man about the Cerberus and I think that this Voldemort's lackey will try to steal the stone tonight" The group was shocked with Neville being very scared. They decided to meet on the third floor at midnight, when everybody else would be asleep.

The night had begun and by the time the clock sounded twelve hits indicating that midnight had arrived, the group of six Hogwarts students that consisted of four Slytherins and two Hufflepuffs, were facing the entrance to the forbidden room. As they entered it, they saw two Gryffindors trying to jump in the well and the big dog already sleeping due to an enhanced musical instrument playing in the background.

"Hello Weasley, cousin" Harry faced his enemies from the lion house and quickly stunned the two boys before they could even do anything. The group then quickly climbed in.

The six members of Team Potter, as one of them joked around, flew for a while in a deep dark dusty tunnel that probably went for a couple miles. Upon landing, the group cried in pain as sharp spikes had entered in their skin. As they looked closer, those spikes turned to be thorns of a plant with long vanes that coiled around the group and started squeezing them. It turned to be that the plant was also a vampiric in nature as it started feeding on their blood. "This is not the Devil's Snare plant!" cried horrified Hermione.

The group was confused on what they should have done as this barrier was not the one they had expected to encounter. The vanes grip had tightened and the group had started loosing hope. "Harry" shouted Neville, "these plants are called Bat Suckers and they feed on blood and hope like Dementors. They destroy hope and positive emotions and can be fought with love. Like the Devil's Snare, magic is not necessary to defeat it, a person should send some magical energy that is based on love and free himself." Harry thanked his friend for this little fact about the Bat Suckers and concentrated. The whole group tried to think of something positive but their minds were busy as their blood was leaving their bodies, they were weak to concentrate on the matter of love.

Harry felt pain too but then tried to think of all the time he spend with his friends, of his mother, about the first time he saw Hermione, about his victory in Quidditch and then with all the strength that was still in his arms he touched the plant with his hand. A white light spread across the room and then Harry as well as his friends dropped on the floor of the room. When they looked around, they saw the dead plant that was blown up and blood that was taken from the group covered the floor. Team Potter had felt a relief. Hermione was prepared for a situation like that and used a healing substance on them but there was only enough to cover the wounds, the group still felt some pain as there was not enough medicine to fully heal them.

Neville collapsed on the floor. Out of the six members of the group, he sustained the most damage and felt that he could barely stand. " Go on without me, I will stay. I cannot move far" After a heavy argument Neville stayed in the room alone, sitting on a stone while the rest of the group moved on.

As the group proceeded into the next room, they saw large stone vultures flying in the sky. There were many flying keys in the air and the group deduced that they needed to capture one to open the door. "This does not seem that bad, all I need to do is to capture one key," replied Harry but then he saw that the broom he needed to fly on was destroyed and their "Reparo" spell would not be enough to fix it.

"Maybe we use "Accio" and after getting the right key we open the door," suggested Draco. The group liked that idea and its five remaining members started shooting the spell and attracting the keys. However, as soon as they did that, the stone vultures flew at them and with their sharp claws tried to tear the group apart.

"Change of tactic. Lets use "Reducto"" Harry suggested but his group members objected, mainly Hermione as if the spell were to be used on a wide scale in a tight under castle room, the whole chamber could explode. However, they did not have many other options left and the group shot the spell.

The best person at this was Draco, as he was used to have an offensive fighting technique and that helped him to vaporize the majority of the stone vultures. However, the birds were still coming and the group needed to get to another room. "Find a place to hide" Harry told his friends and shot a large "Reducto" spell in the room. However, it appeared that his strength was not enough to do the job. The next time he tried it though, the spell touched all the keys as well as vultures and exploded them. The explosion was that great that even the door was blasted into pieces. Harry was confused at how that happened but soon he understood on what had happened- Hermione took his hand and provided him with extra necessary strength to perform the spell.

After the spell was performed, both of the children fell on the floor catching breath. Draco, Tonks and Daphne run towards the duo and sat next to their friends. "That was some major "Reducto" you two have performed," said Daphne

"Yeah, but I plan to do no more of those spells on that scale as they use so much energy" Harry replied. He stood up and waited for Hermione to do the same, when she did, they proceeded to the next room.

When they entered the next room, they saw a chessboard but all the pieces on it were missing. They looked around and then saw thirty-two men shaped figures that run at them. It seemed that whoever was in front of them had changed the chess pieces into Death Eater look alike non-magical stone warriors, who only wanted to destroy the five members of Team Potter.

What happened next surprised them all as the figured took the wands and started shooting spells. They missed a lot and were not very good as they were just pieces of rock that we programmed to fight and who were fueled with magic to send some spells but even then they were not as good as what they represented. Still, they gave a challenge to the group as the four people in it were just the first years, which did not have much experience with magic yet.

The fighting continued and the group eventually had defeated all thirty-two members of the group "Death Eaters in training" but they were all exhausted. Daphne was wounded and could not continue their journey, and the healing liquid was gone. "I will tend to her and we will return to check how Neville is doing, you must continue your fight" Tonks told the group and after putting Daphne's hand on her shoulders, helped the other girl to walk to the first room.

Harry, Hermione and Draco proceeded to the other room where they saw a troll lying around. After checking it, Draco quickly realized that it was killed with "Avada Kedavra". The group continued their journey into the next room, where they saw a room with a number of bottles and a riddle. Flames went up and the trio was locked in the room with no way out of it. Hermione studied the bottles and the riddle and soon found out the solution. "This is simple. This bottle is poison, this does not do anything," she continued " and this one will get us through the flames" The girl told that one bottle was to cross to the troll room and the other to the final room as they thought.

"Harry should take this small one and drink it, only one person can drink from that bottle. The other two would drink from this one and return"

"Hold on Hermione, if the last person drank from here and crossed, it refilled, so we could all go to the next room" Harry suggested and saw bright lights of Happiness in Hermione's eyes. She run at Harry and hugged him at giving them a bright idea. They took the bottle and one by one crossed the barrier. The next person they saw was an unexpected person- it was Quirrell.

"Hello my young friends. I knew all along about your plan and decided to lure you here so you all could be killed. I knew that nobody should have expected me to do this theft as I am jjiust a weeak Proffesssor Quirrelll," he said with a smile on his face. He then turned to them with his spine facing them and took off his turban.

"Hello Harry Potter, we meet again. Today, I will kill you but before that I will destroy your friends. You can spare them and get me the stone from this old mirror" Harry looked at it and smirked. He fired "Reducto" and destroyed the mirror.

"What have you done?" Cried Voldemort and jumped at Harry, trying to kill him. The last thing Harry remembered was the agony of the man who gave him the scar.

A/N: as the last chapter of Year 1 I decided to write this chapter larger than an average chapter in this story. Next chapter: End of School Year and Start of Summer. Next chapters would be smaller, like the previous ones about 800-1000 words per chapter. I plan to have about 3 chapters about the Summer between Year 1 and 2.


	16. End of Year 1

Chapter 16

Harry Potter woke up in the hospital wing and looked at the faces of people who sat around him. He could see a number of teachers in the group as well as his mother, the two remaining marauders, his group of friends that went with him for the stone and the Headmaster. He tried to slowly move but was soon discourages by his mother. "Harry, how have you been? The nightmare is over, Professor Quirrell is dead and Voldemort's spirit had left Hogwarts. Are you ok?" Lily asked her son

"I am fine mom" the boy answered, "How did I get here?" Harry was pleased to wake up in the comfortable surroundings of the Hospital Wing's bed and now that he had rested Harry had a lot of energy he wanted to use.

"Professor Dumbledore returned from the Ministry and came right to save you as he felt that you finished the job. He got to you, Hermione and Draco just in time. Quirrell, who had been possessed by Voldemort died while touching you and before he could kill you, Dumbledore pushed him away from you." Lily looked at his son with concern

"Headmaster, why were the barriers that you and your staff created looked extremely deadly and some of the challenges were even from Year 7 material" Young Tonks asked the Headmaster calmly but it was obvious that she was mad. "I almost lost my cousin as well as his friends!" Tonks screamed.

"Nymphadora!" Dumbledore started but the girl was fuming.

"Don't Nymphadora me!" the tensions in the room were rising.

"Albus, is it true?" Asked Lily her former Headmaster as she was now more worried. "I knew that this dangerous to get the stone was your idea to test my son on how will he fare but I had no idea that you will actually try to kill him. As Dora told me, the Herbology test that was at the maximum supposed to be the Devil's snare as I expected you to put the hardest plant in the Year 1 material was actually the Bat's Suckers, that are barely covered in Year 7 and if it were not for Neville's very extensive knowledge for plants the six kids would be dead by now" the Transfiguration and Potions Professors looked at Lily and then Dumbledore confused on to how such a dangerous plant was there even in the first place"

"Lily, this is all a big misunderstand, I never wished harm to your son. True, I wished to test him but I did not ask Professors to put deadly traps from older years. I feel that Quirrell had modified the tasks so that they were deadlier. I had nothing to do with that"

"Be that as it may, you are still the Headmaster of this school and as such you have the responsibility to take care of kids. You should be grateful that I overlooked the "Troll accident" or that would seriously damage your reputation, You showed some incompetence in being Headmaster and I will forgive you this time but I ask that I will be teaching here next year so that I could be closer to my son and if something were to occur, I could help him unlike the current school's Headmaster" Lily looked at Headmaster with her green eyes and Dumbledore knew that Lily Evans Potter would erupt in her anger and would attack him in order to defend her son as the woman was famous on having some temper, especially when her son's safety was at stake.

As the year went by, Dumbledore temporarily became the Defense Professor. Professor Snape had finally rewarded Harry twenty points in class for "wit". That night, the Slytherins were happy as Harry won in their final game in Quidditch that year and brought Slytherin yet another Quidditch victory in the inter house championship. Hermione was also happy that her uncle finally acknowledged that she was the brightest witch in her year in Potions. The houses grew closer, especially Slytherin and Hufflepuff since the students heard that the group of their six members had dealt with older and more difficult traps than they were supposed to know about.

On the night of the last meal in Hogwarts in the Year 1992, the six members of Team Potter decided to sit at the Slytherin table together. Some of the snakes objected but the table became quite after Draco talked to some people at the table. As the people were eating, Headmaster Dumbledore knocked on his cup with his spoon to get attention. "Before finally announcing the victor House I would like to give some last minute points. I give fifty points to Neville Longbottom for his extensive knowledge with plants." People applauded, especially in Hufflepuff house as they never got many points at a time and now Neville was their hero.

"I would like to give fifty points for Nymphadora Tonks, Daphne Greengrass and Draco Malfoy as they helped Harry Potter to achieve his goal as well as for showing some good dueling." The students clapped and the snakes as well as badgers were happy that they now had extra hundred points."

"Next, I would like to give fifty points to Hermione Granger, who showed some great logic and was able to solve Professor's Snape Potion riddle. People applauded. Hermione could not believe that many people in Slytherin applauded to her; she was happy that she was no longer seen by most as some "Mudblood", polluting their house. Now, she was one of their new heroes.

"And finally I give sixty points to Harry Potter for yet again defeating the Dark forces" People applauded and now the Great hall had Silver Green emblems with a Snake on the walls.

After students returned to Platform nine and three quarters, and the children returned to their parents, Harry noticed that Dudley was standing besides his mother. "Mother, what is the meaning of this?" Harry was confused and angry, as the boy who bullied him was standing next to Lily Evans and Harry did not like what it implied.

"Harry, he has nowhere to go. But before we leave, Dudley has to say something. Right Dudley?" they boy looked at Lily Evans and then at his cousin. "I am sorry that I treated you like that cousin, I wish to redeem myself."

"As you will be living in my house, I will have to accept your apology but that does not make us friends." Harry replied to his cousin and saw that Dudley nodded in understanding.

As the three Evans-Potters left and drove to Lily's house, Harry asked his cousin "So what happened to you and your parents?"


	17. Dudley's tale

Chapter 17

It was the twenty third of June 1991. Dudley Dursley just returned from watching a new movie with his friend Piers. He was very happy as he had everything a boy his age had- he had parents, a good amount of pocket money, friends and alpha position in the social hierarchy at his former school. He also fed and dressed well as his father had a solid income. His love was perfect.

As Dudley returned from the movie and arrived home, he went to his room and threw his body on the bed. In his head he was thinking how he would hunt another of the weak boys in the neighbor hood and the thought of that made him smile. He remembered his favorite hunt for one mentally challenged boy; he and his gangs called him a "freak" as he was abnormal to what was "normal" in Dudley's vocabulary.

Dudley looked at the ceiling and suddenly saw that it became soft as if it was not made of solid material but of jelly. The boy shrugged the though away as he knew that was impossible and he was imagining things. He lay on the bed again and took one of his magazines.

However Dudley's inner peace was disturbed when he saw that the jelly/honey material fell on him from the ceiling. His eyes were shocked and he did not know what he should have done. The boy ran from his room. "Dad, mom, is everything alright in here? I think something crazy is going on!" Dudley shouted as he ran towards his parents, who were quietly sitting in the living room.

The boy entered the room and almost hit a vase that was standing in the doorway. He saw his father reading a newspaper and mother watching some soap opera. "At least everything is fine here," he thought as he sat in the armchair.

"Dudley, is everything alright?" asked Petunia with a worrying look.

"I am fine, I am just tired" The boy went to return to his seat when he saw something even stranger than the honey ceiling. His father's car was dancing outside of the house in the parking lot. Its wheels rhythmically on by one went flat and then round and produced the effect of the car dancing. Then the boy heard the car singing "I am the yellow submarine" song with turning into a real yellow mini submarine.

However, despite being a miniature size of the underwater ship, the mechanical object continued to dance and sing. As the car/submarine was singing the song for the second time, the two adults noticed the weird event and were also bothered by it.

Then, the cups, glasses and other small utensils started running and flying in the house. Some of them made zigzags while others shot like cannon balls and after flying an arc in the air hit the floor and broke. As the destruction of order was in the process, Petunia climbed on her armchair screaming. "What is going on?" she screamed but no one in the family knew the reason why that was occurring.

Those strange events were not the last ones. After the majority of the glass and cups rested in pieces in peace, the furniture turned wild and started fighting with each other. Petunia's armchair was no longer safe as she watched in horror how the place where she had been seating a few minutes ago gained a mouth with teeth and a tail and started chasing first Dudley and then fought with another doggy armchair.

As the sun hid, the turmoil in the perfect orderly house at 4 Private Drive became quiet again although the floor was filled with broken glass and torn piece of leather and cotton. The family of three finally was sitting on one of the sofas that were not badly "injured", thinking about the day. However, the peace was not long lasting as exactly at ten thirty pm a mad suddenly appeared in the room. That man wore strange long black cloaks and from the smell in the atmosphere Dudley could tell that the stranger had not washed in days. His hair was greasy and he looked like a viper, ready to strike its terrified prey. "Hello Dursleys, you probably do not know who I am but Petunia Dursley nee Evans and I met a long time ago. "

The three family members looked at the greasy git and Petunia finally realized who that was. "You! You took my sister away from me to that freak world of yours! Well, I want no contact with that world or my sister anymore, so I ask you to leave."

"Oh, but I did not come he to see you Petunia. I am here as a representative from Hogwarts and I came here to tell you that your son is expected to attend the school on September first" The two adult Dursleys looked at their son

"You are lying!" cried Vernon " My son is no freak of your world!"

"I will prove you wrong" replied the man and advanced towards Dudley, trying to scare the boy. The next thing that occurred was that the stranger flew back at the window and hit it. The adults then saw that it was Dudley who pushed him.

"No, I don't want to be a freak!" cried Dudley

"You are no son of mine and as such you are no longer welcome here" the big walrus size man said and turned his face from his son.

Lily Evans and Harry looked at their relative with pity and surprise. They did not expect Dudley to be thrown away from home. "This is the end of my story. After it, that Professor took me to Diagon Alley where he helped me buy supplies. On September first he told me how to get to the train and left. The rest you know"

"I am sorry that this happened nephew, but I cannot help you if you will not be willing to change. I will take you with us but as I told you earlier, I do not want to see any more bullying towards my son. You will be provided home, and necessary supplies like food and schoolbooks but you are free to do whatever else you want to do. " As the car stopped, the two people exited it and went into the house, while Harry ran into Hermione's house to tell her his cousin's story.


	18. Lord Potter and new family members

Chapter 18

The next morning Harry woke up at nine thirty am and went to eat breakfast. His regular summer days have started and he was glad that now he could enjoy a lot more freedom. He knew that he could even use magic at home when his mother as close as the trace could not detect the person using magic but the household; however he dismissed that idea as he did not want their semi- secret house be found by the general public. It did not have a Fidelius Charm but not many people knew about the house either.

As Harry had finished his breakfast, his mother Lily Evans Potter looked at him. "Harry, I had been thinking for the last couple of weeks about one thing and decided that it would be in your interest to claim that right; that will give you more protections in the Magical World. You see, Potter family is one of the top ones in Wizarding World Hierarchy and as such you could claim your Lordship title. Normally you would not receive it but since you are the last descendant in the line, you can claim it. I hoped that we performed this today" Lily told to her son.

The boy was confused at first but later decided that it probably was a wise decision and as his mother later explained, it would free him more from Headmaster's influence as well as emancipate him. Hermione agreed with Harry that it would be a good idea to do.

Later during the day, Harry, Lily, Hermione and Dudley apparated to London; Lily apparated herself with three children side apparating with her by holding her hands. They went through the Leaky Cauldron, where Harry saw that many people looked at him and especially his scar. Soon, the four Magical people were in the Diagon Alley and were heading to Gringotts.

As they entered the bank, they saw that it was mostly empty as the first days of summer did not produce much traffic in the bank, and the Goblins themselves were working in their offices, as the vast majority of them seemed to be workaholics. He group came to the counter with an available Goblin and looked at him. "How can I help you?" asked the Goblin.

"I would like to claim my title as well as receive the emancipation afterward." Said Harry and looked at the Goblin. He saw that the creature raised its eyebrow slightly but the Goblin tried not to show much surprise.

"What Lordship you wish to claim?" He asked

"Potter one" Harry told. The Goblin then took a knife and a bowl.

"I need some of your blood to see if you are indeed eligible to take that title" with that he held the bowl under Harry's hand and after Harry nodded, the creature poked Harry's hand and some blood flowed into the bowl. After the procedure was performed, the Goblin waved his hand and the wound closed.

The Goblin then put the bowl in a special container and looked at the genealogy chart. At first, Harry Potter name had appeared, then Lily and James Potter as well as Dudley and his parents.

Two charts appeared; one was showing the closest generations of the Potter family and the other of Evans one. Potter family did not really surprise Harry as he expected to see Charlus and Dorea Potter as his paternal grandparents and the other closest relatives like Blacks appeared; but the Evans' family tree surprised everyone when Lily's great grandparent's parents were shown to be not Mr. and Mrs. Evans but Mr. and Mrs. Prewett. The Prewetts had two children, a boy and a girl. The boy's lineage led to Molly, Gideon and Fabian as his Uncles and the girl's lineage led to Lily and Petunia. That meant that Lily's mother was a Prewett. He then saw that Molly's dot combined with Arthur Weasley and seven Weasley children dots appeared. Everybody in the room was shocked. "How is that possible? I was raised by my parents, who were Evans". To answer her question, the Goblin asked Lily to give her a hand and then made a blood status test, which then resulted to be "Half-blood". That certainly shocked the group even more.

"Could I also try the blood status test as well as my lineage?" asked Hermione, as she was now curious since she knew that Severus Snape was her Uncle.

"Certainly" the Goblin took her blood and made two tests. One of them said "Half-blood" while the other produced two more charts. Hermione's maternal line produced Prince-Snape lineage, where Severus was Emma's brother. However, the paternal line showed that Hermione had a cousin she never knew she had, and then she saw the name of her father and her paternal uncle but before she could she the names of her cousin and maternal Grandparents, the chart got quickly taken by the Goblin.

"I am sorry, but I want you to leave." He pointed to Hermione. The girl was surprised and together with Lily they left; a tear run on her cheek, as she could not understand why the goblin suddenly changed his behavior. Meanwhile, Harry Potter gained his title and left with happiness on his face. However, his happiness faded when he saw his best friend crying.

"Hermione, everything will be fine, we will find about your cousin family." The girl looked at him with a small smile and quickly hugged the boy.

"Common Minerva, we need get school supplies" they heard nearby as Harry and Hermione saw a family of three, a girl and her parents walking towards one of the stores. The girl was already holding a book, the title of which surprised the group. However, as the group was about to enter one of the shops they saw a group of young Wizards standing in their way.

The group consisted of a mother, father and daughter. The man looked similar to Dan Granger, he had broad shoulders was around six feet tall. His wife reminded Harry of one of his Professors as the woman had medium length brown hair that was tied in a ponytail, and wore glasses but her appearance overall was quite different to his Professor and Harry speculated that the woman took more of her physical attributes from her father. The girl's face was similar to Hermione's, she too had somewhat large front teeth but the girl differed from Hogwarts smartest witch in that her hair was straight with a darker tone of brown. The girl's face skin was also little paler than Hermione's. the girl seemed shy as she walked very closely to her mother and seemed to be somewhat scared of her surroundings.

"Another Granger! We hate you kind!" with that, one of the boys, who led the gang pointed his wand at the family but was surprised when the girl's mother took out a wand as well.

"Leave my family alone" With a couple wand movements, she sent the bullies away. The boys were now afraid to see a powerful angry witch and they quickly ran away. The family then entered the shop.

"Hermione, I think we finally found your extended family!" Harry could see that Hermione's face expressed happiness.


	19. The other Grangers

Chapter 19

Harry and Hermione waited for the family to exit, so that they could get a chance to talk to them. It took a while as the three were in a Madam Malkins shop; Harry knew that sometimes it took for girls a while to chose an article of clothing. Finally, the family exited the building and the students came to them. "Hello my name is Hermione Granger and this is my friend Harry Potter. I heard that you were harassed by some bullies, who told that you were Grangers." The girl told to the family in one breath.

"Yes, our surname is Granger. Are you by chance the daughter of Daniel and Emma Granger?" the man asked while eyeing the girl. Harry was not surprised as the two girls had similar facial features.

"Yes, they are" answered Hermione. She then saw how the adults came close and hugged her.

"Let me introduce us: my name is Robert Granger and I am a younger brother of Daniel Granger, your father. My wife's name is Merope Granger and our little daughter is Minerva." He said with pride. The Slytherins saw how the girl became a bit uncomfortable and hid behind her father's leg.

"Please excuse my daughter but she is very shy as boys in her previous school had bullied her and she eventually got a reputation of having "boy repellent aura" as all the boys that tried to annoy her experienced minor "attack", once on of her bullies flew away from her and hit the wall. " Hermione looked at her newfound cousin and tried to start a conversation with her but the girl hid completely from the two Hogwarts students.

"We are worried that she would be bullied in school as she will be starting Hogwarts this year and as she most likely be in Slytherin she might get actually hurt" told Merope worryingly about her daughter. She spoke regarding her daughter with care yet the woman did not express her emotions much; she now really reminded her of one of her Professors.

Lily Evans Potter as well as Dudley caught up with the two Slytherins and saw the Granger family was talking to Harry and Hermione. She looked closer at the witch and suddenly remembered just where she had seen her face. "Hello, my name is Lily Evans Potter and this is Harry's cousin Dudley. Are you by any chance Merope Riddle?" asked Lily.

"Lily!" the woman exclaimed and run towards her former friend; the two friends hugged and then looked at each other. "I have not seen you for ages! I am not Merope Granger as I married Robert just before the war had ended. We were friends in school, I was four years ahead of Lily in Hogwarts and helped her to adjust to wizarding culture," the woman told the group.

Harry was now very surprised as he just found out that Hermione had a cousin and her Aunt was one of Lily's friends at Hogwarts. He did remember now how his mother talked about some Merope Riddle when she was sin school but that was when Harry was seven and he dismissed that information, as he knew that his mother had many friends in school.

"So what do you do?" asked Lily her former friend. She was curious as she haven't heard about Merope for years and since she was very smart, she also knew that her friend kept some dark secret as Merope never told about her past to her friend and changed the conversation, as if she avoided he past like a plague and was ashamed of it.

"Well, I work in the ministry as an Auror; originally they did not wish to take me but Alastor vouched for me as he had seen my potential as he claimed. However, I am not very happy about the job and wished sometime to become a teacher." Lily then told her friend on how she raised Harry and since they were not seen in the public eye for long she stayed at home with her son and that Sirius helped her.

"Black? I heard rumors that he was a dark wizard, a Death Eater and that he betrayed you. You know, I thought that after He disappeared, I thought hat Sirius would take revenge on your family" Lily saw fear in her friend's as she mentioned Voldemort's name but was surprised that she did not use the common Voldemort's alias as other wizard's did, instead she used "He". The Redhead witch was unsure if that was significant or not, and dismissed the though of Chief Death Eater in the back of her mind.

The group that now consisted of four Grangers and three Evans-Potters returned to the Leaky Cauldron, where they sat at one table and ordered some food. As the conversation progressed, the two Slytherins saw that the girl was now more comfortable in their presence as she did not hide anymore behind her parents. "Minerva, do you know about Hogwarts?" asked Hermione her cousin.

"Yes. I will learn magic there" That was all the girl say as she then started at the children. After a while, she took her book and started reading "Hogwarts, A History". Harry smiled cheekily at Hermione and the girl understood what her friend found amusing.

Meanwhile, the three adults were discussing their lives and Lily was curious on why Merope thought that the girl would attend that house. "So, tell me Merope, why do you think that your daughter will be in Slytherin?" asked Lily.

"As you know students tend to go in the house their parents did and as you know I was in Slytherin. However, unfortunately my girl is cursed and thus she will definitely could go only to Slytherin" Lily saw that her friend had briefly looked at her son when she said "cursed" but dismissed her suspicions until she would have further proof. Still, she decided that even if he were the father, her friend should not be ashamed, after all Merope and definitely Minerva were not him; Lily was very tolerable person and did not care for the heritage or any curses a person had; If the person was kind she would spend time with them anyway and give them a chance of being friends, her friendship with Remus was the proof of it.

At the start of the third hour, the group decided to go home. Lily wished her friend good luck and the two groups promised to meet at the platform on September the first. The two groups parted and Lily with her family as well as Hermione went home; Hermione was very eager to tell her family about her cousin and could not wait to see her parents while the rest were exhausted and wanted to relax in their home.


	20. The beginning of Year 2

Chapter 20

On the first day of September, the two Slytherins and one Gryffindor arrived early to the Kings' Cross station, so that they could get better seats on the train. However, despite the day being a normal one, Hermione saw that Harry smiled, which meant that he was planning a prank. The students looked at their parents and then left them, arriving on their platform where they saw Minerva standing alone. The girl seemed sad as she looked on the ground. " Minerva, why are you so sad?" asked Hermione her cousin.

The girl replied slowly. "Yesterday my mom took me to play with a girl my age, Ginny and her brother was very rude to me; his words hurt my feelings"

"Don't worry Minnie, nobody will hurt you or they will have to face my wrath!" The girl exclaimed and Harry made a step back. He knew his friend to be a gentle person but he also did not want to face his favorite's bookworm on her bad day.

"Don't worry Minnie, I planned just the thing that will make this day great for Ronald Weasley" the younger girl saw s smirk on Harry's face and made a tiny smile.

"Well, lets get inside" Hermione suggested and the group entered the train. Dudley was long gone, as he did not wish to sit with his cousin; they were on speaking terms and had a truce but they still were not friends and as such the larger boy decided to find if someone from his house was already aboard.

Couple hours passed and soon two girls joined the trio. One had long white hair and her facial expression showed that her mind was very dreamy, as she sometimes spoke about weird creatures the group never heard about. The other girl had long ginger hair and freckles on her face; she seemed to be a tiny copy of Lily Evans. "So how was your summer been?" asked Ginny Weasley her friend Harry.

"It was great, I found more about my family tree, got emancipated and met Hermione's cousin" The redhead looked at Minerva and then at Hermione.

"You two look similar" she stated, "My name is Ginny Weasley and I might be your new roommate in Hogwarts"

The girl did not answer first but after a minute of silence replied. "My name is Minerva Granger. I don't think so, my mother thinks that I am cursed and will only go to Slytherin and I heard that all Weasleys go to Gryffindor"

"Not all Slytherins are evil, Minnie as your cousin and I attend that house as you can see we are not evil" Harry tried to reassure the girl. The younger Granger smiled and began reading one of her books.

"Ginny, I have some interesting thing to tell you. Have you seen similarities in your appearance with my mother? Well, it turns out that we are second cousins and that my mother Lily's mother was originally a Prewett." Ginny was surprised to that turn of events but that made sense as she her appearance was strikingly similar to Lily's and everybody knew that Lily Evans had temper, especially when her child was endangered.

As the group continued discussing and arguing on who would be their next Defense Professor, the group heard a noise and looked out of the window. At first they saw four wheels but after they looked closer they saw a blue car flying in the sky with a red haired boy driving the car. "He is such an idiot," said Ginny as she observed her obnoxious and annoying brother; he flew closely to the train, trying not to get left behind.

Harry laughed, "I planned the prank with Sirius. I knew that Ron would be one of the last students to board the train and as such I asked Sirius to charm the gate so that Ron would not be able to cross it. However, I was not expecting that even from him"

The train continued its journey and in the evening as it was approaching the group decided to change into their school uniforms. As the train stopped, the Slytherins and Gryffindor followed the rest of the students and the three girls followed Hagrid across the lake. Harry and Hermione sat in one carriage and soon were followed by Draco and Daphne. "Hey, how have you been?" asked Draco as he looked at his friends. "You wont believe me but my father actually congratulated me for getting to know you and bought me a broom!" The group laughed. Harry was glad that he was now a friend with Draco; he did not wish to have any unnecessary friends.

After the group returned to the castle, they were joined by Neville and the five friends walked together to the castle. As they entered the Great Hall, the four its members sat at the Slytherin's table while Neville went to Hufflepuff. Soon afterwards, the first years arrived and the sorting begun.

"Creevey, Colin" called Deputy Headmistress and put the hat on the boy's head. "Gryffindor" The boy run happily to the table and the sorting continued.

"Granger, Minerva" replied Professor McGonagall and saw how Hermione's cousin approached her and sat on the chair. The older witch was shocked to see a girl that reminded her much of herself when she was younger and after looking at the girl for a couple seconds with a shocked face, put the hat on her head. The girl's sorting was the second shortest Harry had seen, only Draco's was quicker as the girl was immediately sorted in Slytherin. As she approached, the girl sat in between her cousin and Harry.

"Lovegood, Luna" The dreamy girl approached the stool and after a minute of debating was sorted in Ravenclaw. The girl then ran towards her house.

Soon, the sorting was almost over and the deputy Headmistress called the last person to get sorted "Weasley, Ginerva" The girl run towards the stool and put the hat on her head. "Where should I put you, Ms. Weasley? You have a lot of courage and would be a great addition to Gryffindor as all you other family had been"

"I don't want to go there, I want to be with my friends" the girl told the hat and then waited for it to sort her.

"Well, in this case "Slytherin". Good luck" the hat cried and the girl ran towards the snakes' house. The whole school went in uproar, and the students were now whispering almost as bad as they were talking about Harry when he was sorted into the same house. However, to make everything worse, the doors into the Great Hall opened and Ron Weasley entered the room. After he saw just where his sister was sitting, he almost lost his sanity and was dragged to Gryffindor table by Percy.

After the noise produced by the student body had quieted down, Headmaster Dumbledore started speaking. "Before we begin the feast, I would like to announce new Professors this Year. It was decided last year that Professor Binns wished to retire and as such Madam Longbottom expressed a desire to teach his class" the students cheered since that meant there will be no more boring History classes before they realized that their nap time would decrease, which made them unhappy with the class again.

"Next, I wish to introduce you to your newest Potions Professor, Lily Evans Potter, who was one of the best in the subject during her stay at Hogwarts" The students applauded and now Harry saw his mother sitting at the stuff table, waving at him. But then, a realization arrived into many students' minds that they wished was not true.

"And lastly I wish to introduce you to your newest Defense Against Dark Arts Professor Severus Snape" The Wizard stood up proudly and the majority of the Slytherin table cheered while the rest of the houses were horrified, especially the Gryffindors.

Soon the food appeared and the students eating the dinner as well as thinking about what the new school year would bring.


	21. Potions and DADA

Chapter 21

Next morning on September second, on Wednesday, the classes begun. Some of the students were really eager to either begin or continue their education, especially the first years and Hermione, some were horrified by the thought that school had begun like Ron and others were not too eager to begin a new year but were thrilled at the fact that they had two new Professors; many students did not know what to expect.

Harry's first class was Potions. Like before, it was a Double class where Gryffindors shared the classroom with Slytherins. Many students disliked that but could not do much to change it. As the Slytherin Quartet entered, they sat in the middle waiting for new Professor. Soon other students arrived and finally Lily Evans began her class. "Welcome again to Potions! I hope that by the end of the year you will all enjoy this class a lot. Today we will cover the Swelling Potion. Can anybody tell me what's its effect is?" asked Harry's mother.

"Yes Hermione?"

"The Swelling Potion makes the desired object bigger in size" told the girl quickly.

"Well done, ten points to Slytherin. The notes are on the board, good luck" the class started brewing and as half an hour passed Lily looked at her students, checking if they were making the potion right.

"Mr. Dursley, you don't need any more puffer-fish eyes. Now, mix the solution and follow the next instructions," The class continued.

"Ronald Weasley, why are you trying to send a firecracker into Mr. Malfoy's cauldron? Five points from Gryffindor and a detention tonight in my office at seven." The youngest male Weasley looked at his new Potions Professor and then continued his work.

Five minutes before the class has ended, Lily told the students to stop the brewing. "By this time, all of you should have finished. You will now test your Potions on these beetles; they are supposed to triple in size." The woman gave a beetle to each group and waited for the measurements.

Harry and Draco took their beetle and its length went from a centimeter to a two point seven. The boys looked rather pleased at their work as their almost got the Potion perfect. Hermione and Daphne got a perfect three-centimeter beetle. The measurements continued.

"Well done Potter and Malfoy, you receive EE today. Granger, Greengrass, you showed outstanding work tonight. Dudley, Thomas your beetle is half way grown to normal size, an Acceptable job. Weasley, Finnegan you have only have half an inch long beetle, unfortunately a Poor job." The Professor continued with grading and some Gryffindors were surprised for getting As and EEs, since Professor Snape tended to give Ps on average" The class had ended and the Silver Quartet went to Transfiguration.

Next day, on Thursday, Slytherins and Gryffindors second years had once again a double period, Defense Against Dark Arts with Professor Severus Snape. As he walked in the classroom, nobody wished to make a noise as they new by now that it would most likely result in disastrous consequences. "This year we will start learning about the dark creatures and the ways you could fight them. Could someone tell me what a dark creature is?" Hermione lifted her hand but he ignored her, as he wanted to see someone else try.

"Yes, Mr. Potter?"

"A dark creature is a magic creature that can be dangerous to a human"

"That is almost right, five points to Slytherin. A Dark creature is not a creature like a dragon or a manticore, those two are animals; the dark creatures are unnatural animals that attack because they find pleasure doing it, not because they want to eat you. I knew one such beast that almost ate a man at Full moon but he was not doing it willingly. However, if you ever stumble upon Sirius Black's deranged cousin, run away as she will torture you and eat your heart for breakfast." He finished his speech before giving the group papers.

"I wish to know if you can tell before learning about the Dark creatures which ones are actually dark creatures. Also please tell me reasons why you think the creature belongs to the category you put it in." The class began their work and before even half of the time passed, he saw that Hermione had finished her work and handed her assignment in after which she sat on her desk and waited.

Harry looked at the choices and tried to remember what Uncles Moony and Padfoot used to tell him about different creatures. He knew that he should not have added "Severus Snape" as one, even though Remus and especially Sirius would be happy if he did. He crossed a house elf and then proceeded to hags.

"Time is up. Hand me your papers." Snape took their papers and decide to read some answers aloud. "No, Ms. Parkinson, a Muggle is not a Dark Creature. Mr. Potter, a grim is actually a Dark one, even if your friend Black thinks otherwise. Mr. Weasley, a spider is not a dark creature and it does not want your food! It eats small insects. Even an Acromantula is not really one, as it just wants to eat you for breakfast without causing you unnecessary pain. Now Ms. Granger, you are actually right that a boggart is a dark creature although not a very dark one. And Mr. Dursley, pixies and garden gnomes are not dark either as they are just pranksters that should be dealt with. I see that many of you are still very unfamiliar with dark creatures, except some of you. Thus, as your homework, you need to write an essay foot in length each about a Basilisk, Werewolf, and a Dementor and explain why you think they are Dark Creatures or not. Class Dismissed"

The students stood up and quickly exited the classroom as many did not wish to see Professor Snape more than required. Harry and his classmates then went to their next meal, as they were hungry. "This year will be great! Professor Evans is a great Potions Master and Snape knows what he is talking about!" Exclaimed Hermione. Many people disagreed with comments about Snape but Lily Evans quickly proved to be one of the most lovable teachers at school and by the end of the week even Neville received an Acceptable on his own.


	22. Molly's howler

Chapter 22

The group arrived in the Great Hall and sat at Slytherin table. It was already half way full as some of the Slytherins had already arrived to eat dinner. Harry sat at the table and put some food in his plate, and then began eating it, as he was quite hungry.

The boy looked at the opposite table and saw the Gryffindors whispering and discussing something. He did not care as they always thought that he was up to something bad, especially because he vanquished the last Dark Lord and got into Slytherin. However, Harry did not bother himself with thought on what some Gryffindors thought about him, as he knew that there would always be people that would not like him.

After the second serving, Harry saw an old owl flying into the castle and with hit landing in between the dishes on the Gryffindor table. As the owl landed almost directly in front of Ronald Weasley, Harry deduced that the mail was for him. The red envelope burst and he entire student body heard Molly Weasley's screams.

"Ronald Weasley, how could you do this to us? Your father had many problems in the Ministry as his own son took the car and flew from the Platform in it. And of course Muggles noticed the car, as they are not used to that. I warn you Ronald that if you pull one more prank like that, I will personally escort you from Hogwarts" Ron's face turned tomato red color and he was fuming.

"And as for you Ginerva Weasley, you disgraced this family. How could you do this to us, our daughter in Slytherin? We will have words young lady after the year ends but if you even try to follow the Dark path, you will have serious punishment in the summer" With that the howler shut down. The girl looked at her family at the Gryffindor table and a small tear escaped her eye. After a couple minutes, the majority of the students forgot about the incident and continued their dinner but some like Harry wanted to help the girl.

After the dinner ended, Harry ran towards Ginny, as he wanted to cheer her up. The boy found her sitting on steps of the ladder that led to the dungeons. A small pound of water was spilled that lay on the floor clos to Ginny's legs and by the time Harry approached her, the girl was still crying. "Ginny, it's alright, nobody will hurt you!" the boy tried to comfort Ginny.

"You don't understand Harry, my House place has already made me an outcast in my family and if I do anything my mother will not like, I might even not see Hogwarts ever again." Harry came closer and hugged his friend, putting the tear away from her face.

"Don't worry Ginny, nothing bad will happen to you and even if it does, you will always have friends to back you up." The girl smiled slightly but then made a terrified face as she saw her two brothers approach her.

"Ginerva Weasley, as our mother mailed me, you have to move to Gryffindor, at least to sleep at night, so that we could look closer after you. Mom does not trust you anymore!"

"Go away Percy, I am not moving to Gryffindor!" The girl replied and turned her face away.

"You will. I am your brother and a Prefect and I feel that it would be best for everybody if you live from now on in Gryffindor"

"Yes, listen to Percy, Ginny," said Ron as he approached her

"Go away, you two Gryffindors!" replied Harry in protective voice.

"What will you do then Potter? You are but a second year and I am a sixth year Prefect. Hurt me and you get many detentions as well as point deductions. Actually, thirty points from Slytherin. Now Potter, please step aside and leave Ginerva alone!" told him Percy as he lifted his wand.

"Leave at once. I will not allow any bullying in this castle, especially between family members!" Lily Evans arrived at the scene and defended her son

"Professor Evans, she is my sister and I think that it would be better for her to stay in Gryffindor," replied Percy

"Prefect Weasley, I don't know who told you that you can escort your sibling to the house they were not sorted to, but that will not happen. The sorting is never challenged, the girl will stay in Slytherin and if you will have any problem with that, that's bad for you. And I also ban you from coming close to your sister while you both are on School's premises, that included Hogsmead and the Quidditch Pitch."

"I will talk to Professor McGonagall," exclaimed Percy as he tried to defend his position

"I would like to see you try and get her to overrule my decision. I also take ten points each of you for bullying and willingness to harm your sister. Now, go away before you want to see me angry" she shouted and the two lions paled. Harry smiled, as he loved the overprotectiveness his mother provided him. The two boys ran away to their dorm, as they did not wish to face wrath of Lily Evans.

"Thirty points to Slytherin for protecting your friend. Now of you go to your dormitory and good luck with your classes." The two Slytherin students ran to their dormitory and the older witch thought that she soon would have words with Molly Weasley. "Clearly that woman has some issues as you don't threaten your child based purely on their sorting." She though as she was going to her room.

When Lily arrived in her room, she saw her former friend sitting in a chair, reading a Potions book. "Finally you arrived. Look Lily, I am sorry at what happened that other night"

"Sev, don't. Please leave as I had a difficult day." The man stood up and went to the door.

"By the way, Lily, I suggest for you to change the password as I quickly guessed your password "Prongs". With that the man left and the red haired woman lay on her bed, putting her face in a pillow. She knew that she still had some feelings for him but what he did could never be changed and as such she could not restart her former friendship with him to the same extent it was before.


	23. The warning

Chapter 23

Harry Potter was tired. At first when he started the year he thought that his classes will not be as bad as they were before since Snape was no longer teaching Potions; however, his hopes were destroyed when the greasy Slytherin Professor started assigning him detentions every week. At first Harry was surprised that there were no points deductions and he wondered why Snape gave him so many detentions but he learnt after the first one, as the former Potions Professor was making him practice the Defense against Dark Arts spells for three hours straight, trying to make Harry a better dueler. As the first month had ended, Harry was almost done with the second year material.

On thirtieth of September 1992, Harry Potter's classes for the day ended and the boy decided to take a walk. The boy visited his owl Hedwig and then was walking back to the Great Hall when he heard some noises in the grass. "Who is there?" asked the boy but saw nobody. He looked closely at his surroundings and then spotted a large dark green snake that lay in grass.

"Hello? " he asked skeptically. Harry was about to dismiss the snake but then saw that the beast crawled towards him and lifted a portion of its body above the ground. "Hello Harry, I came to warn you that something wrong and dangerous will happen in the castle this year. Be ready"

Harry was surprised that he could talk to the snake and sat on the ground. "Do you understand me?" asked the boy

"Yes I do." Harry was puzzled a bit at how he could speak to a snake and why it wanted to talk to him.

"How did you know that I would even understand you?" Harry was now thinking that the snake was up to something not good and wanted to know what it planned.

"I heard from one smaller snake in your garden that it sensed that you are a speaker. The serpents can sense if the wizard is a speaker or not. I normally would not mind that but once on my travels I found a house elf that relayed me some information about the dangers this year. However, his master returned and killed him and I was lucky to escape"

"Hold on a minute, how could the elf understand you?" by now Harry was extremely suspicious of the snake that just appeared out of nowhere and now claimed to warn him about some danger.

"I am not a regular snake, my species is called boomslang and were named by one African wizard three millennia ago. Our species is one of the few that have any magical properties, our skin is used in potions and we can communicate with other magical creatures, like elves and unicorns. However, when it comes to humans we only can talk to speakersss" the snake replied and the boy was not really confused.

"All right, you might be correct but why should I trust you?" asked Harry

"I have not killed you yet, have I? I wish to help you Harry Potter, even snakes now know of your legend. As far as the danger, I heard that the room will be open again and that its monster will kill the new magicals" Harry now understood what the snake was talking about, someone was about to wipe out the muggleborns.

"Do you know where the monster is or what it looks like?" asked Harry

""I don't know. The snakes don't know its name" Harry looked at the snake again.

"All right, do you need anything else?" asked the boy

"I wish to help you in your mission" told the snake and coiled around the snake. Harry felt strange not only talking but also allying himself with this small snake but also decided that if he had an owl as one, why not this small snake.

"Harry, what are you doing here?" Harry heard a girl's voice and saw Minerva Granger standing a couple meters away from him.

"Hello Minerva, I was just thinking about school" Harry tried to lie but then saw that the girl made a more serious face. She then smiled and made a smirk.

"Harry, what did the snake tell you?" The girl sat on the ground and looked at the meter long poisonous snake. "Come here, baby!" The girl called the snake.

To Harry's surprise, the snake understood her and crawled quickly with elegance to the girl. Minerva put the boomslang on her lap and petted the snake. "You can talk to them?" asked Harry in a surprised voice

"Yes Harry, I learned of that ability when I was three and found an garter snake in my garden. I quickly bonded with Scales but after two weeks of friendship with her, my mother found out about it and was furious. I near saw the snake again as my mother forbid me to talk to snakes. Naturally, I found others and learned about their lives more" Harry was surprised that the girl, who was extremely shy in classes and an even bigger social disaster that Hermione felt so relaxed while being in the presence of the serpents.

The two sat and looked at the snake. It opened its mouth and showed its tongue, after which it climbed inside the cloak of the girl as the snake decided to be its pet. After it coiled around the girl, while hidden from the outside world, it showed its head and looked at Harry.

Harry and Minerva then decided to return to the castle but as they approached it, they saw Ronald Weasley with a couple other Gryffindors looking at them. Before the boys could see it, the snake hit itself completely. Harry felt that he would need once again to prove to he group that they should not mess with him or his friends. The four Gryffindors and two Slytherins took their wands out and prepared to fight.


	24. Midnight fight between lions and snakes

Chapter 24

"You going to be taught a lesson, Potter! You made my sister go to the snake house and for that you will pay!" cried Ronald Weasley as he shot a red spell at Harry but the boy easily deflected it.

"Go away or you might not like the outcome," Harry warned his opponent but the red head ignored him and the four Gryffindors were firing spells at him. Now, as he was fighting not one but four Gryffindors, Harry had some difficulty but he still had an upper hand, albeit smaller one than before.

Minerva looked at the lions and joined the fight. However, she was the least experienced in the group and her spells seemed to be the weakest of the six students and she quickly went on defensive. "You might need to defend your new friend," teased Ron as he fired a spell at the Granger girl, who then dropped on the grass.

"You are nothing but a weak Slytherin slime," cried Ron as he tried to shoot another spell at the girl but then saw that the smile disappeared from her face and her eyes lusted for blood.

The girl stood up and sent a strong red spell, that disarmed Ron; and as he fell on the ground he was horrified at the facial expressions of the girl as it looked that she went for a kill.

Suddenly Harry dropped on the ground as his scar felt pain and the boy put his arms on top of the scar. He rarely felt real pain in the scar, granted it hurt occasionally, when his body all hurt after Quidditch training sessions but now it hurt like Hell, Harry thought. The last time he felt that pain was when he faced Voldemort.

The girl dropped on the ground as she quickly ran out of energy and looked with scared eyes as the four wizards approached her. "We will teach you a lesson, bitch!" Ron Weasley tried to hit the girl with his shoe in the face but Minerva used her last strength to quickly crawl away from him. She then crawled to Harry to help him.

"Crawl away like a cockroach, you Granger bitch. You are no better than your cousin Hermione. At least you are not a know-it-all bookworm but still you disgust me" He spit on the girl's face.

"Harry, help me please. Stand up, I cannot fight them alone!" cried the girl. Harry felt that his scar no longer hurt and took her hand as he stood up.

"Thanks" Harry stood up and then the two saw a spell flying at them. The two Slytherins fired together, and saw that more powerful spells came out of their wands.

"Harry, I think we somehow have a magical connection and can increase each other's spell power. Take my hand" Harry took the girl's hand and the two started shooting more powerful spells that soon sent all four Gryffindors flying to the wall. The two friends then released their hands from the hand lock.

"Take this!" cried Ron as he threw a small yellow object that upon the impact exploded and threw the Slytherins away. Both groups stood up and prepared their wands to continue the fight.

"What is the meaning of this?" the two groups saw Percy Weasley with a few other Gryffindor Prefects as well as their counterparts, together with Draco and Hermione.

"They started," cried Harry to Percy, who first looked at the Boy Who Lived and then at his brother. He then took his wand out and pointed his wand at Potter, as he did not believe the Slytherin. Nobody remembered who fired the next spell as the next thing they knew was that a group of Gryffindors was dueling the Slytherin one and the sky got surprisingly red at nighttime. Harry was now dodging the flying rocks that were sent by Percy to put him down from the fight.

Harry slipped on the mud and fell. One large rock was flying at him but then he saw that a rocky wall got constructed and it engulfed the rock before blowing up. "Hermione" cried Harry as he jumped and hugged his friend.

"Good to see you Harry, now lets kick their ass" said Draco, who sat beside the couple and the group then rejoined the fight.

The fight lasted for another our and both groups were getting exhausted. At some point during the fight, they saw that all their wands dropped on the ground with a chilling wind and as they looked at the source, they saw the old Headmaster, who looked disappointed.

"Could someone care to explain to me what is going on here?" asked the Headmaster. Both groups started shouting and telling their story.

"Quiet down, I will ask you one at a time" Every student then told what had occurred and the Headmaster thought about their stories.

"Well, then, both of your houses will receive the deduction of thirty points. Now, off you go to your dormitories" the group broke out and Harry joined his friends while they walked to their common room. After they returned to the Slytherin common room, they sat on the armchairs and started talking.

"What happened Harry, we were all worried," cried Hermione and Harry saw that she had tears on her eyes. She then hugged him.

"Well, I was talking to Minnie here and we were attacked by Ron and his gang. Fortunately, they could not hurt us much" Harry replied

"Harry also talked to a snake," replied Minerva Granger with a smirk. Draco opened his mouth and dropped the glass of water he was holding.

"That means" Hermione said " that means you are a parselmouth!" Hermione looked rather horrified at the thought. However, the next thing she saw made her scream as a green snake climbed from Minerva's cloak and coiled on the carpet.

"Don't worry cousin, Poisy will not hurt you!" the girl tried to calm her cousin as she stood up and went to pet her snake.

"Poisy? Minerva, how do you know that?"

"Well, he is poisonous, so yes! He told me, this little snakey that he is not dangerous" told the younger girl as she hugged the snake. The group looked at them in surprise.

"Hermione, I almost forgot, this Poisy, the boomslang came to warn me about the danger this year and that some evil monster will try to kill the muggleborns" The group sat in silence as the day made them extremely tired and as they tried to digest all the new information they received, the group of five Slytherins fell asleep on the armchairs in the common room.


	25. Quidditch tryouts

Chapter 25

It was another good Saturday of the year and the group of Slytherins was excited, as they would have a Quidditch practice that was scheduled in The third of October. Harry Potter was in a happy mood as his grades so far were good and he only received one Acceptable so far; even his extra curricular sessions with Snape on dueling were going well as Harry was on the way to master that skill. Professor Snape would not tell it to him but in his mind, the Defense Professor knew that Potter would become one of the best Defense students in the entire school by the time he were to graduate. The weather was still warm and sunny and as November rains did not arrive yet. Harry Potter was sure that he would still be the Slytherin's team Chaser as Captain Marcus Flint suggested to him to practice even more and gave him some suggestions for the next game.

As Harry walked to the common room, he saw Draco, Hermione and Daphne waiting for him. Hermione was reading a Charms textbook while practicing a spell, Draco was reading a Quidditch textbook and Daphne was just sitting on the couch, thinking about something. "Hey, guys, are you ready for today's tryouts?" he asked his friends

"I don't think I will go," replied Hermione

"Hermione, you should at least try, Quidditch is a great sport" Draco defended his favorite game.

"Please, Hermione?"

"Alright Harry" The girl put her book down and the Silver Quartet walked to the changing rooms to put the sports wear for the tryouts. However, as the group met at the pitch, they saw that Hermione did not change.

"I will watch you try, but I do not want to play in this game." The four students then ran towards their Captain Marcus Flint, who was already looking at the potential players.

"Potter, you are a seeker. Now, who wants to be a chaser?" some people lifted their arms and Flint gave them brooms.

"Show me what you can do. You have ten tries, you need to score as many times as you can. Of you go, Greengrass first" Daphne and Flint flew in the air and the girl tried to send the ball in the hoops. She tried her hardest but unfortunately as the girl later found out, she only scored three points out of ten.

"Next" cried Flint as another person trying for the position tried. The Chasers tryouts lasted for an hour and as everybody that wished to get that position tried their best; Flint descended on the grass and looked at the players.

"Malfoy, you are on the team. Well done for your nine points." Draco smiled, as he liked the fact that he was now on the team. All the years of practice at Malfoy Manor paid off and now he could be on the snake's team.

While Malfoy joined Harry on the benches where the team sat, Flint was still thinking on who should be the third chaser. Nobody was as good as Malfoy that year and the closest score to ten was two seven points. Flint thought for a minute and took a bigger boy on the team. "Now, lets choose Keepers. I will fly and try to score, while you would try to defend. Every time I do not score, you lose a point. You start at ten" By now the crowd had gotten smaller as some people did not want to try for the other positions. After another hour, Flint chose the best Keeper, that saved his place seven times and two biggest boys for the Beaters. The rest of the people that tried for the team left and Harry and Draco joined their friends.

"Congratulations, Draco, you are now on the team! I knew that you wanted that very badly" Daphne told her friend as the four walked towards the castle.

"I saw that you did not even bother to try" the group heard a voice behind them and saw Pansy Parkinson standing close to the group.

"Pansy, what do you want? "

"Nothing Draco, just to say that you should not be friends with that scum, especially that Mudblood" she pointed to Hermione and then was thrown three meters back.

"Do not say anything bad about Hermione!" exclaimed Harry as he pointed his wand at the girl.

"What will you do to me, Potter? O, wait, you wont hurt me, right? How could I fight you on equal terms, you half blood Boy Who Lived" Harry looked at Pansy with anger but did not fire any spell.

"You see, I can call that Mudblood anything and she would not even fight me" By now Harry saw that Hermione was sitting close on the grass, crying with her wand being dropped on the ground.

"Hermione" Harry ran towards the girl as Pansy laughed at them. However, as Harry ran towards his friend and turned his back on Pansy; before she could hex him, a girl jumped on her.

"I am not so hesitant to hurt you!" Daphne jumped at the other Slytherin girl and the two began a catfight. They dropped their wands and started hitting the other with their fists, as well as tearing their hair away, while rolling on the ground. However, at one point Pansy got an upper hand and was ready to knock out her opponent.

"Do not touch her" cried Neville as he ran towards the fight and hexed the girl, so that she flew away from Daphne. The Slytherin girl stood up and left, vowing to come back at some point for a rematch.

"Neville, what are you doing here?" asked Hermione as the two Slytherins returned to their group since Hermione had already calmed down.

"I was reading a Herbology book over there and saw that Daphne and Parkinson fought, I ran as fast as I could as I did not want that girl to hurt Daphne."

"Um, Neville, you can take away your hand," replied Daphne as the boy blushed slightly as their hands were holding together. The groups returned to the castle, where the Slytherins said "Bye" to Neville and returned to their common room. As the group was walking towards the castle, two people were looking at them from behind a school window's glass. Lily Potter was proud of her son; Snape also observed Potter.

The two adults then noticed that they stood too closely to each other and they then looked in the other person's eyes. Lily Potter then made a couple steps back, as the closeness with the other Professor made her rather uncomfortable and walked quickly away from her childhood friend. "I am sorry, Sev." She cried as she approached her office. She hated the newly resurrected attraction she was getting to her former friend.

"Draco, I have a surprise for you and the rest of the team but please do not tell anybody" Harry told his friend quickly as if he was about to say something important.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Well, after a long debate with your father, Sirius somehow convinced your dad that they should buy the Slytherin team the newest brooms Nimbus 2001. They should arrive before the first game and we will surely win the cup this year" Draco smiled although he was still unsure on what Black told to his father that convinced the ex Death Eater to buy the brooms together for the team. In the back of his mind, Draco knew that Sirius Black had blackmailed his father somehow since it Lucius Malfoy never did anything positive to others, save his family.


	26. A strange voice behind the wall

Chapter 26

A week has passed after the Quidditch tryouts. Harry had just finished his first training session and was happy as he was walking on the wet grass towards the castle. Quidditch was one of the few things that he loved a lot and enjoyed playing it. He knew that this season the Slytherin team would probably win as he saw the talents of the seven players; the chasers were brilliant and even though Draco liked to talk about himself that he was the greatest chaser ever, Harry knew that Draco was pretty good. The only two not so brilliant players were the beaters as they did not fly on brooms well, but they were quite strong.

Harry approached the castle and saw that many spiders were running away from the castle, as if something dangerous was occurring in it. The boy dismissed the little critters as the spiders always ran somewhere and thought instead about the upcoming Quidditch game.

"Kill, want to kill you" he heard a voice that came from the wall. The source was not seen although Harry was sure that whatever produced such a sound would be quite deadly as fear came over Harry. The boy followed the sound but could not find what made it.

"Harry?" Harry saw his friend Minerva walking in the castle, putting her ear to the wall.

"Yes? What are you doing here Minerva?" Harry asked his friend

"I heard some sounds that came from the wall and went to follow it. You mean you heard it too?" The girl asked him and Harry nodded. She felt some relief.

The two students then saw that the boomslang, that crawled quickly to the girl and coiled around her hand; the two students could sense that the snake was shaking. "What happened?" asked Minerva

"I heard voices from the wall and my scales contracted. I never heard such a powerful and deadly voice. I am confused on how I heard that though" Harry looked at the girl and their faces went white.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" he asked Minerva with some fear in his voice.

"I think so, we both heard the voice and then Poisy heard it too. It means only one thing; the voice belonged to a very large snake, which crawled somehow behind the wall. But what can be of that size?" the girl was confused as she never heard of the snake that large; she was quite an expert on snakes as she read many books on the serpent and judging from the voice behind the wall, the snake was larger than the biggest pythons and boas.

"I don't know but I think that whatever the species of the snake, it is very dangerous due to its size. However, I have seen spiders running away from the castle and I think that the incidents are related" The girl looked at Harry and nodded.

"Lets research in the library to see if it has anything on the snakes that size." The boomslang crawled away as the two students ran into the library. Fortunately for the two, it was almost empty as almost nobody was there since many people spent their entire Saturdays outside of the castle.

"Lets look in this book on different creatures" Minerva suggested and the two checked the animals that were present in there. Unfortunately, no modern animal present there fit the descriptions; they found a few species of snakes that lives near Hogwarts but all of them were too small for their rough estimate size of forty-five feet long serpent. As the two students turned to the last page, they sighed and went to get another book.

"How about this book, it lists different creatures by the level of how dangerous they are. The author states that the book has a recording of all creatures ever listed in categories XXX to XXXXX with a span of a thousand of years." The two looked in the ancient book that was extremely dusty and rust covered its metal binding. Harry and Minerva looked at the different animals or creatures, trying to figure what the snake was.

"Werewolf. Dragon. Acromantula. Basilisk. Manticore. Wait, Basilisk?" Harry re opened one of the pages he just skipped and saw a drawing of a large snake. The two read the description on the snake.

"A Basilisk is born from a chicken egg that is hatched by a toad. They live for hundreds of years and usually used as guards or pets of parselmouth wizards. Considered to be the most dangerous creature on the planet since not only the size of the snake can become legendary but also its venom that is used as the snake's weapon; it is a deadly poison with only one known antidote. The most powerful weapon of the beast is its stare, as it turns a living creature into stone; it is disputed if this ability affects a parselmouth. Spiders, even Acromantulas are mortally afraid of this snake. The last recorded basilisk was killed in 1785. " Before the two students could continue reading the information about the snake, they heard the Voice again.

"Kill, let me kill you" The voice started moving away from them and the two students ran away from the library to follow the voice; Minerva tore the page from the book and followed her friend. The voice was moving fast and after ten minutes of running, the two found a large pound of water spilled on the ground. A cat lay in it, its fur was wet and the animal was not moving. As the two students examined the scene, the voice completely disappeared.

"I heard the voice" the two Slytherins saw Poisy that also arrived at the scene.

"Poisy, do you know anything about Basilisks?" Harry asked the snake and saw that the snake shook violently before jumping at Minerva, trying to find some comfort in the girl's arms. Harry knew that boomslangs were quite dangerous snakes and were not afraid of many things but this one looked as if it seen Death.

"I heard about them, yes but I could not possibly imagine that there would be one. Do you actually have proof of one roaming the castle as that would be seriously bad news." The three looked at the cat and then realized that it was petrified.

"This ball of fur is not dead" the snake replied after tasting the fur of the animal with its tongue. "But this incident further gives some more evidence for your theory" It replied.

As the three continued talking, they did not realize that a group of students approached them. "Look, Potter is a parselmouth," cried Ron Weasley as he saw the three speaking. The boomslang quickly hid in Minerva's cloths and soon more students arrived.

"The Chamber of Secrets is now open. The enemies of Salazar Slytherin and his heir beware!" Read one Slytherin girl loudly. Soon, Professors arrived with Filch, who looked murderous and wanted to kill Harry.

"Relax Argus, your cat is not dead. It has been petrified." Professor Snape assured the caretaker.

"Follow me, you two" Snape led the two students to the Headmaster's office.


	27. Headmaster's office

Chapter 27

"Lemon Drops" Professor Snape said to the Gargoyle that stood in front of the Headmaster's office. The Gargoyle started moving and soon it moved to a side, granting access to the Headmaster's office. The tree entered the room and saw that the Headmaster was already sitting there.

"Hello Severus, thank you for bringing young Mr. Potter and Miss Granger into my office." Snape looked at Dumbledore and left. The two students sat in the chairs that stood beside the Dumbledore's desk and waited for something to happen.

"Professor Dumbledore, we did not do it" started speaking Harry defensively and the elder man smiled.

"I know that, Harry but nevertheless I think that we need to talk." The wizard looked at his fireplace and saw two witches and a wizard enter the room.

"Headmaster, I do not know what you think had happened, by my Godson has not committed any crime, after all, he is only prankster" Albus Dumbledore looked at the man.

"Thank you Sirius. I have no doubts that these two students had caused any damage to Filch's cat; however, I fear that something sinister is going on in the castle. Harry and Minerva were found talking to a snake by numerous students next to the writing on the wall, as well as the cat. It is only logical that the majority of the student body now expects that Mr. Potter and Miss Granger are dark wizards as they are parselmouth; as far as many people are concerned, the last parselmouth was Lord Voldemort"

The Headmaster looked at the two students and three adults and waited for their replies. The children looked at their families worryingly before Harry started speaking. "Professor, we heard a strange voice behind a wall and followed it to the library before we discovered that the sound's source was most likely a Basilisk."

"A Basilisk? Surely you are mistaken Mr. Potter? " Merope Granger looked at the boy with fear and disbelief.

"Well, we could hear the voice but then it was obvious that the source was a snake since Poisy heard that voice as well"

"Poisy?" the four adults asked the students. After his name was called, the male boomslang crawled from under the girl's robe and looked at the people that sat in the room.

"Mum, I would like to introduce Poisy, my pet Boomslang to everyone" the girl said proudly as she hugged her snake.

"Put this thing down immediately! I told you never to talk to snakes again!" cried the elder witch and tried to get the snake away before her friend stopped her.

"Merope, what harm can result from a small snake that can talk to your daughter? Don't you see, she is a parseltonque and no snake would harm one" Lily tried to reassure her friend.

"That's precisely why I do not wish her to have this pet. My father had a boomslang as well and" The woman realized that she spoke too much and close her mouth.

"Merope, you should not be ashamed of your parentage. What happened almost forty years ago is not your fault and you should not carry the blame for everything he did" The woman cried at the Headmaster's words and then smiled as Lily gave her friend a hug.

"Now, I think we need to settle a bigger problem. As young Harry and Minerva claimed, they heard the voice, which was also heard by Minerva's young snake. It is obvious that the creature was a snake but what was its species?" the Headmaster asked the group and himself.

"Professor, we estimated from the sound that the snake would have to be at least forty five feet in length and since the cat was petrified, the snake can only be a basilisk." Harry then gave the paper to Headmaster and the elder wizard read the information out loud.

After Dumbledore read the information, the other three adults had mixed feelings towards it but it was obvious that they were all at least partially afraid. "This means that the heir of Voldemort or Voldemort himself has returned to Hogwarts and is now causing those incidents. I am sorry to say this Miss Granger, but if the other students find out about your true parentage, they would most likely assume that you were behind the attacks."

"What are we going to do Albus?" asked somewhat worried Sirius.

"For now let's wait as we don't know where exactly the Chamber of Secrets is located. However, I urge all of you not to tell about this to anyone, as I do not want panic in the castle. As for you two, you should tell me about everything you find and if I will not be available, contact Severus or Lily at first. " The adults stood and left and only Dumbledore, the two students as well as the snake were left in the room.

"Off you go and good luck in your classes" smiled the Headmaster as the two students left. Minerva called her snake and soon the two students were walking to their dormitories.

"Interesting things happen to us," said the girl

"That is my burden, as well as of everyone who accompanies me. Welcome to the club" he jokes as the two walked to their dormitories.

"Where have you been, we were worried about you" said Hermione quickly before jumping at Harry and hugging him as the two students returned to the Slytherin common room.

"Can't breathe"

"Sorry Harry" said Hermione as she released her friend. The two Slytherins told about their conversation that they had in Headmaster's office. The rest of the group swore not to tell others what they heard.

"I think we need others to know about this though, as we need people from other houses as well. I think we can safely tell Neville for sure"

"That would be a good idea Harry although I do not know if there are many people we could trust in Hogwarts, especially after today's incident. If you wish to have other people from all the houses, how about my older brothers Fred and George as well as my childhood friend Luna from Ravenclaw?" Ginny suggested to her group.

"Splendid. So what should we call our secret group? Harry's gang?" giggled Daphne

"How about Team Potter?" suggested Hermione. Harry blushed but before he could say anything, the rest of his Slytherin friends agreed with the name.

"So, we meet tomorrow in the library with Fred, George, Neville and Luna and explore the matter more" The group agreed with Harry and then went to work on their homework, as some of their Professors gave them large assignments that would take the whole weekend to complete.


	28. History of the Chamber and rogue Bludger

Chapter 28

The group met a couple times and the students from four houses discussed what they learned so far; however, there were no new clues to the monster or its chamber. Even with the help of the Restricted section of the library, where passes were provided by either Professor Snape or Professor Evans- Potter did not help much as the group did not find any relevant information for their problem.

On thirtieth of October, the day before the game between Slytherin and Gryffindor the students sat in History of Magic Class, listening to Professor Longbottom's lecture. As soon as she began to teach, Augusta Longbottom became a more liked Professor than Binns ever been as she proved to be very knowledgeable in her subject as well as making the material seem more interesting and easy. "Professor, could you tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?" asked Harry his Professor, as he was curious if the Professor knew any relevant information to their case.

"All right Mr. Potter, I will tell you about the Chamber as it is a part of our Castle's history. Many modern historians argue that this room has never existed and was created as a myth but after studying some ancient texts, I found a couple of times when the Chamber was mentioned in the Founder's diaries. As you all know, four people founded this school, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. At one point Salazar and Godric started an argument on who should be taught at Hogwarts, as Slytherin wanted only the purebloods to attend the school. Slytherin left the school but before he did that, he created a Chamber, where he put a monster. It is said that when his heir would return, he or she will open the Chamber and unleash the creature that laid there for ages." The Professor finished her conversation on the Chamber of Secrets and Continued with the lecture.

As the lecture ended, Harry and his friends left the room and saw the next class entering the room. "Hello Harry, Hermione" Minerva then greeted the rest of her friends and proceeded to her desk.

"Hey you slimy snake" shouted Ronal Weasley and threw a small crystal ball at Minerva's feet. The glass broke and some dark green liquid touched Minerva's skin.

"What potion did you throw at me?" spouted the girl. Before anything else could happen, large silver green crest appeared in the air, just above the girl's head.

"That is the crest of Salazar Slytherin" one girl exclaimed. Before Ron could jump at the girl and hurt her, Professor Longbottom grabbed him and pushed to the wall.

"You will not bully anyone in my class Mr. Weasley. Detention today after dinner" she told the boy. The second years then started finally exiting the room as previously they were curious on what would Ron do. Harry smiled and looked at Ron, he knew just the method on how to make Weasel suffer for what he did to his friend.

The next morning, the Slytherin Quidditch team stood up early and had a quick breakfast, so that they would have enough strength to defeat the Gryffindor house. As the seven players finished their meal, they went outside to where their brooms awaited them.

"What is this?" asked confused Flint as he saw seven Nimbus 2001 brooms already being polished that lay on the grass.

"Well, my dad and Sirius Black provided this gift for the team," replied Draco happily. Flint congratulated the boys and wished his team luck.

"Don't forget, we have to win the game tonight as we have better players as well as the faster brooms than they. Each student took a broom each and proceeded to the pitch.

Soon the game started and the fourteen Quidditch players were flying in the air. "Angelina gets the Quaffle and tries to score! Slytherins defend and now Draco has the ball," shouted Lee Jordan as he continued to tell what was happening on the pitch. The game lasted for half and hour and by then Slytherin had scored three times although Gryffindor team scored nine times already. Flint was now cursing his new Keeper but knew that he could not do anything at that point.

"Gryffindor team scores again" screamed happy Lee Jordan and the audience saw that the score was one hundred to thirty with Gryffindor winning. Some students that wore red and golden scarves were dancing on their seats, cheering for their team.

"Malfoy scores another goal. You slimy" before he could finish, he was interrupted by Professor McGonagall.

"Jordan!" she said strictly and the boy stopped the insults.

"George Weasley, or is it Fred Weasley, send their Bludger and knock out Malfoy from his broom. The Gryffindor team was cheering again and the next two goals made them even happier as Gryffindor was mow leading by eighty points.

"Harry Potter spotted the snitch!" cried Wood as the crowd switched its focus and observed Harry, as he flew to get the small golden ball. Suddenly, a Bludger flew at him and with a loud sound hit his arm.

"It appears that Potter has just broken his arm. Good for him" cheered Jordan before the Deputy Headmistress looked at him strictly again.

Harry flew in the air and now noticed that the Bludger that hit his arm was now chasing him. Harry accelerated and now forgot about the snitch, he was trying to escape the mad flying ball. As the ball almost hit his broom, the boy suddenly descended to the ground and tried to change the broom's direction but found some difficulty in that as he had only one functioning arm. As he almost hit the ground, one red haired woman grabbed the hand of the person sitting next to her. As the two Professors saw what happened, they quickly pulled their arms away from one another and moved their bodies away.

Fortunately, Harry changed the broom's direction and flew in the sky again. The Bludger was chasing at him again but now Harry saw the Snitch again. He flew towards it and then caught it, before landing on the ground. However, the rogue Bludger did not stop its hunt and flew at Harry.

"Reducto" shouted Hermione as she approached her friend and destroyed the Bludger menace.

"Well done Harry, you played well" Lily Evans approached her son and congratulated him with the game. "However, if you ever try any of these tricks again, I will ban you from playing Quidditch" she threatened him. Harry smiled. Professor Snape soon approached and gave the boy a small bottle with transparent liquid in it.

"Drink it Potter," he commanded and the boy made a sip. It was not very pleasant one but soon after he finished, he felt that his arm did not feel any more pain and the bones were whole again.

"And as for you Mr. Weasley, you have a detention in my office tonight after dinner for hexing the bladger" Ron Weasley face reddened from anger but he did not say anything as he did not wish to receive a third detention in the span of two days.

"O, and twenty point from Gryffindor" Lily Evans deducted from his house and the Slytherin team soon saw how the annoying Gryffindor walked towards the Castle and as he was approaching its entrance, they though that they heard some threats that came from the boy.

A/N: next chapter: petrifications of students begin! Who do you think will be petrified in the next chapter? Also, the dueling club starts, that will feature the battle of two former friends (guess who they are)


	29. The Dueling Club

Chapter 29

It was an average Thursday, November twelve and the students were busy with their classes. Nothing changed in the school except now young Minerva Granger was harassed sometimes non stop by three of the houses as they claimed that she was the one behind the attacks. However, almost the entire Slytherin House was thinking highly of the girl as they thought that if she was truly the Voldemort's heir, she could finish her ancestor's job. However, usually Harry and Hermione found the girl in the company of Ginny and Luna who were trying to comfort the crying girl.

That Thursday, as Harry, Hermione and Draco were returning to their common room after their last class, they heard that people started running in one direction as if there was something interesting to investigate. "Shall we join them?" ask Harry and his friends and him ran with the rest of students to the destination they all were going.

However, as they approached the hall, the younger years were shocked while the rest of the student body tried to bring order back into their houses. Soon the Slytherin trio saw what had occurred- a couple of bodies laid on the floor motionless and they were in the same state as the cat that was petrified. "The Basilisk attacked them but how?" Harry wondered and looked at his friends. They were as clueless as him.

"Harry, I do not think that the students are deeply hurt, they were petrified by the snake, but they did not get killed as they did not absorb the full charge of the petrification" the girl quickly said and then pointed at the ghost that hang in the air. The ghost had numerous black spots on his body and hang in the air without any movements.

The Professors soon arrived and saw what happened. After a quick examination, the Head of the school looked at the students. "Prefects, please escort the other students to their rooms. Professor, please report to my office. Mr. Potter, please stay" The students followed their Prefects as Harry and his two friends approached the Headmaster.

"Professor?" asked confused Harry

"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy, I wanted to inform you that among other petrified students were your friends Miss Greengrass and Mr. Longbottom. Now, do you know anything about this attack?" he asked Harry

"No, Professor, if we knew anything knew we would tell you" replied Harry and then looked at a number of petrified bodies.

"Very well then, good luck with your classes" the aged Headmaster replied as he left the three Slytherins and went to his office.

"Harry, look, five students were petrified and three of them are Muggleborns!" exclaimed Hermione as she pointed at the students. The two other Slytherins noticed and then proceeded to go to their common room, noting that as they were leaving, Filch and Hagrid took the petrified students and carried them into the Hospital Wing.

The next day was very grey on emotional scale, as the students were both sad and afraid from what happened to other students. The first years especially were absolutely terrified to move between the classrooms and unless a Prefect or a Professor was present, they refused to exit the room they were in.

As the day passed by, Harry noticed that some of the students were talking about some "Dueling Club" that was supposed to start soon. Harry was happy that he would get more practice but Hermione was very nervous. "Harry, do you think I would duel well? I never dueled before and we only learned the basics, and I know we won't be tested on how much we remember from the book," the girl quickly told to her friend.

"Don't worry Hermione, if I know one thing, it is that you are a powerful witch and you would duel well" Harry reassured his friend and as a consequence received a large hug from his friend; Draco saw that and smirked.

At seven in the afternoon, the student body, which signed up for the club, assembled in the Great Hall, where all the tables were removed. As the students started to enter the Hall. They saw two Professors sitting in the room.

"Professor Dumbledore thought that this Dueling Club would be a good practical application for you. My assistant Professor Evans-Potter will help me to show what a wizarding duel is and then you will be broken into pairs and duel each other."

The two Professors looked at each other and then walked to the middle of the room, where they faced each other and then after bowing to eachother's walked to the two opposite sides of the room and prepared to duel. "Expelliarmus" shouted Professor Snape as he sent a red ray of light at his opponent.

"Protego" shouted the red haired Professor and then after pointing her wand at Professor Snape, shouted "Stupefy". However, the Defense Professor ducked and then sent a couple other spells at his former friend, but now all of them were sent wordlessly.

Soon, the duel started heating up and the two Professors were sending more and more powerful attacks at their opponents. Once, after Lily sent a Disarming charm at her childhood friend, the former Potions Professor levitated a chair he was previously sitting in and then threw it at the spell. The chair got destroyed but the spell did not hit its target. Snape then sent a couple of other spells that were stopped by a brick wall that was created from the room's floor that was at Lily's feet.

Snape sent "Reducto" and destroyed the wall but Lily Evans was ready and sent a couple new Disarming spells. The duel continues. A few students heard Professor Snape whispering "Levicorpus" and then the students saw that Lily Evans lifted in the air and was hanging in the air upside down. The Potion Professor smiled and some Slytherins laughed.

"Lumos Solem" shouted the Potion Professor and the bright light temporarily blinded the students as well as Professor Snape and he lost concentration as he sat on the ground trying to reverse the spell. He quickly recovered but after he looked at the place where Lily was floating previously in the air, he saw that she was nowhere to be seen. As he looked in the air that surrounded him, he heard two words and tried to duck but was unsuccessful.

"Petrificus Totalus" shouted Professor Evans- Potter as she sent her former friend on the ground. The Slytherins were extremely unhappy and the other houses cheered, especially the Gryffindor House as they saw as they later called " the Fall of the Terrible Dungeon Greasy Bat". Lily approached Snape and unbound him and the two bowed again at each other and looked at the other students.

"What you have just seen was a duel between two wizards. We do not expect you to duel like that any time soon but you should all at least try to successfully disarm your opponent." Lily Evans told to the students. The Professors then proceeded to put the students into groups.

"Potter, Granger. Weasley, Malfoy" before Professor Snape could continue, he heard annoying sound that was produced by Ronald Weasley.

"Not you, another Weasley" Snape pointed at Ginny and the two students prepared to duel. Harry saw that Luna got paired with Minerva and the Weasley twins with each other.

"Whom I should be dueling with?" asked Ron as he saw that he did not get a pair to duel with.

"You are dueling with me" told Professor Snape to the Gryffindor and smiled at the horrified expression of the boy. The dueling club continued for a couple more hours, during which Harry showed his proficiency at dueling. The boy decided to help his best friend improve her fighting style and gave her some advice that he heard from Professor Snape. The rest of the students dueled well too, with one of the most amusing duel being the duel between the twins, as the two Weasleys decided to use their pranking material on each other that soon resulted in different kind of explosions. But the most amusing duel was between Professor Snape and Ronald Weasley, as the Gryffindor boy was constantly running away from the scary Professor.

After the dueling club ended its first session, the students followed the Prefects of their houses and went to their dormitories. As the students were leaving, Snape saw that his former friend approached him and hit his cheek. "Severus Snape, never embarrass me in front of the students in such a manner again!" she yelled at him angrily and then left the Hall.

A/N: I hope you liked the duel between Severus Snape and Lily Evans. I tried to make it more interesting than it was in the book.

Next: Another Wave of petrifications. Winter holidays begin and Harry finds an interesting book.


	30. The Diary

Chapter 30

Weeks since the incident passed by and by then end of the term the castle generally quieted down and relaxed. Professors Snape and Evans-Potter continued the dueling club and the students now significantly improved their dueling skills thanks to the club. As the time passed by, Severus Snape's detentions paid off and now Harry was easily considered to be the best duelist of his year as well as the best student in the Defense in the practical field; in the theoretical part of the course, Hermione Granger was still on top as she was in most of her classes.

On December twentieth Harry and his friends packed their trunks and were ready to leave home for the Winter Holidays. Their search for more clues towards finding the Basilisk or its chamber did not give results but the Team Potter still continued their search.

As Harry was returning to his common room after the dinner, he heard the voice once again and ran like crazy at it the place where the voice was heading. At one point the voice vanished and Harry saw a couple other people being petrified. Now, the number of students was much smaller with only three people being petrified but one person in particular made Harry extremely unhappy. The boy saw that his best friend Hermione Granger lay motionless. "Hermione, no!" cried Harry as he ran towards his friend.

The boy hugged his friend but then felt that her body was cold. The girl looked like a large doll as she lay motionless and did not respond to her friend.

"Harry?" Harry saw that his mother walked towards him as she was passing by and saw the petrified students as well.

"Mother, Hermione is petrified too" cried the boy and tears escaped his eyes. As Lily Evans approached her son, she sat next to him and hugged her son, as she needed to comfort her baby.

"It will be alright Harry, Professor Sprout told the other Professors that her Mandrakes are about half way done and she expects that all victims would return to normal by the end of the year." Harry's mood got little better but he still did not want to think as if his best friend was petrified.

"Harry, Hermione will get better as all the others be" she reassured her son. Harry looked at his mother with sadness in his eyes and then before he stood up, he kissed the girl on the cheek. Lily Evans smiled as she expected the two Slytherins to end up together at some point and it seemed that her hopes would occur much sooner than expected.

The elder witch lifted the three students, and carried them to the Hospital wing. Harry decided to follows his mother. When the two arrived in the Hospital Wing, Lily gently put the petrified students on the beds. "More petrified students?" asked the school nurse and the Professor nodded. The nurse made a sign and proceeded to check her new patients.

After sitting for two hours at Hermione's bed Harry went to his dormitory, where he saw his now decreasing circle of friends. "It would be funny in a cruel way if by the end of the year all my friends were wounded and separated from my life" thought Harry as he told his few remaining friends of what had happened.

"Are you going home for the holiday?" asked Draco and Harry shook his head.

"I must remain close to Hermione, she was petrified and I cannot go far away," he told his friend

"Well. See you after the holidays" replied Harry and then looked at his other friends.

"What about you Minerva? And you Ginny?"

"Hermione is my cousin and I am staying in the castle, as family must stick together, especially in these times," replied Minerva.

"And as for me, I do not wish to go home and see my mother as I think she will be furious with my sorting. I will go home during the summer but not sooner. Besides, twins are staying too and I plan to learn some trick they know," replied Ginny to her friend. Harry smiled, as he now knew that at least some of his friends would stay in the castle with him for the winter.

As the Winter holidays began, Harry played in the snow with Ginny and Minerva as well as twins but he did not stay out of the castle for long as he spend most of his free time in the hospital wing next to Hermione. Even Madam Pomfrey stopped asking him to leave as she saw his determination to be by Hermione's side.

A week passed and Harry got used to his Winter Holiday. In the morning he woke up in the Hospital Wing and went to have breakfast, then played with his friends outside of the Castle and after the lunch he spent four hours straight taking extra dueling sessions with Professor Snape, who was pushing his limits. By the end of Snape's "detentions", Harry was really exhausted and sweat ran on him like rivers and the boy returned to the Hospital Wing where he read different books to his friend, hoping that she would somehow recognize at least his voice.

On December twenty eight Harry was walking from his "detention", when he saw Minerva running at him. "What's the matter, Minerva?" he asked the girl.

"Harry, look what I found in a girl's toilet. I went to a girl's toilet and mistakenly arrived into one that nobody visits and found a crying ghost with a book lying on the floor. I took the book and here it is"

"Tom Marvolo Riddle" read Harry as he looked at the book. It was a small diary that as he opened, he saw nothing written in it.

"Do you think it belongs to a student here?" asked the girl

"I doubt it. I never heard the name Tom Riddle before. Lets look in the library" the boy suggested and the two friends went to the room with thousands of ancient texts, where they searched for any person with name Tom Riddle.

"This book says that Tom Riddle was a student at Hogwarts about fifty years ago and he received an award for special serviced for the school as he helped to capture the person, who lets the monster out." Read Harry and the two friends looked at each other. They did not find much more information on him, only the generic things like his status as a Prefect and Head Boy as well as his Slytherin placement.

"His past suggests that he was a good student," said Harry as he looked in the book.

Later in the evening, the two friends were studying the diary and the girl was half way dreaming when Harry spilled a drop of ink on a page and then saw it disappeared.

"Minerva" he shook the girl and she looked at him

"Look, I think I found something. The ink disappears when dropped in it" the two put more ink in the book but it all disappeared.

"Lets write our name," suggested the girl as she wrote a sentence.

"Hello, my name is Minerva Granger and my friend over here is Harry Potter" she wrote and the two students saw that ink disappeared again. However, another sentence then appeared on the same page.

"Hello Harry Potter and Minerva Granger. My name is Tom Riddle," they read.

"Do you know who opened the Chamber of Secrets about fifty years ago?" suggested Minerva as she wrote her question.

"Yes, but I cannot tell you. However, I can show it to you" the diary replied and the two Slytherins then realized that they got sunk inside the diary.

"I think that this diary is a Pensieve with a memory placed inside." Suggested Harry as he remembered his mother telling about an object like this. The two students looked around and saw Tom Riddle talking to Professor Dumbledore, who looked much younger despite still having a large beard. They heard the Professor asking Tom if he knew anything about the attacks and Tom replied negatively although the snakes' instincts suggested otherwise.

"You know, Tom looks like you" joked Harry as he saw striking similarities in Tom Riddle's appearance to his friend's"

"Stop it Harry, no way he can be my grandfather," she jokingly yelled at him and the two then followed Tom as he went to some part of the castle.

"I am sorry Hagrid but I have to do this. I cannot allow Hogwarts to close!" shouted Tom and stunned the tall student. The two snakes saw their gamekeeper, who looked much younger. Tom Riddle then opened the box Hagrid had and tried to kill the creature but it quickly ran away. The last thing the two students saw was a rather large Tarantula sized spider running away in the forest. Then everything faded and the students returned to the castle and sat in the Hospital Ward.

"Hagrid is innocent" Harry realized and the girl agreed as they knew that the monster had to be a snake and the spider did not fit it. The two made a deep breath as now they had another task to complete- to prove that Rubeus Hagrid was innocent.

A/N: I placed some hint on the main future relationship in this chapter although I think by now everybody could guess what it would be.

Next chapter: another conversation with Dumbledore.


	31. A second talk with Headmaster

Chapter 31

The school resumed and Harry Potter found it even more difficult to spend time with Hermione as he now had a lot of homework assigned. Quidditch practices did not help either as his team Captain training was very tough and Harry was often exhausted from his practices to do anything else. Still, the boy found at least half an hour everyday to spend time with his friend. Once, after a very frustrating day, especially after Snape's brutal training Harry returned to the Hospital Wing and lay next to Hermione. The boy did not know what came from him but he hugged the girl tightly and kissed her on the cheek.

Harry missed his other friends too as Daphne and Neville laid petrified next to Hermione Granger. It seemed that everyone who was friends with him was getting in some trouble or got distant from him as soon was evident from Ginny's weird behavior when she sometimes did not even responded when he tried to talk to her and it seemed for Harry that the girl was in some kind of trance state at times. However, Harry had to deal with the temporary loss of his best friend Hermione Granger as well as Neville and Daphne and he could not help Ginny as well. "Probably she is just having issues with her family" Harry thought as he went to another class.

On January fifteenth Harry finished his classes and together with Draco went to Slytherin common room. The boy planned to take as many books as he could carry so that he could read more to Hermione when he saw Minerva running at them with a surprised look on her face. "Harry, someone being in your room and made a mess in it" The girl told her friend and three friends ran to the Slytherin common room.

"Pureblood" told Draco and the three entered the room. The trip went to Harry and Draco's room and saw that their dormitory was a mess as many books, parchments and quills were lying on the floor everywhere. The beds were a mess as well. The three wizards took their wands and quickly restored the order to the room.

"Has anything been taken?" Draco asked his friend as the other boy checked his books and other school related materials.

"Yes, the diary of Tom Riddle is missing" Seeing the confusion on Draco's face, Harry quickly told his friend what the diary contained.

"It could have been only a Slytherin. Only they know the password to the room" told Minerva as the group sat on Harry's bed, not really knowing what to do.

"Guys, I think it is the time we talk with Professor Dumbledore again," Harry suggested and the Slytherin trio exited their room and went to see the Headmaster. The three friends traveled to the Gargoyle and Harry tried the "Lemon Drops" password but it did not work.

"Professor Dumbledore surely changed the password Harry," suggested the girl

Harry tried to think of different Muggle candy he knew as his mother told him that Headmaster's passwords were always some sort of candy, mostly Muggle one. On his twentieth try the door opened when Harry said "M&M". He smirked and the three students walked upstairs.

"Professor Dumbledore, we have something important to tell you" Harry did not finish, as he did not find the Professor in his office. The group looked around and saw a red bird, which soon burst in flames. The group did not know what to do and in a couple minutes heard the Headmaster, who after opening the door saw three students that were staring at the place of his bird.

"Don't worry Harry, Draco, Minerva, Fawkes is a Phoenix and as such when the time comes he sets himself on fair and then get reborn. An amazing creature Phoenixes are, they are immensely strong and can carry a very large weight and their tears can heal the worst wounds." The Headmaster smiled as he looked at the bird stand where he saw a small bird head popping out from ash.

"Professor, we have something important to tell you. I am sorry to only think of coming to tell you about this know but I was extremely busy and completely forgot about that piece of information. Professor, a couple of weeks ago Minerva and I found out a diary that belonged to Tom Riddle" before Harry could continue, Harry's speech was interrupted by the loud sound of the cup smacking the floor as Professor Dumbledore was very surprised to hear THAT name from Harry.

"What did you find in the diary?" asked Professor Dumbledore and the three students could tell that the elder wizard was very worried.

"Well, you see Professor, the diary had a memory contained within itself and Tom Riddle showed us his memory that dated back around fifty years ago of how he helped to find the monster that killed the girl back then. However, we know that Hagrid is innocent as his "pet" was an Acromantula and the monster must have been a Basilisk." Harry told to his Headmaster.

"Who is Tom Riddle and why are you so worried sir?" asked Draco as he, like Harry, was confused and did not know just who the man was.

"And why does he have some of my facial features" asked the Slytherin girl

The elderly Headmaster looked at the three students and did not know what to say. "Off you go to your dormitories. Remember, if you even hear snake's hissing, run as fast as you can and don't look back. I will have to deal myself with this matter. And I give you all thirty points to Slytherin for your help in tracking that menace." The three students understood that they had to leave and after exiting the Headmaster's office, ran to the common room.

As the students approached their common room, they saw Lily Evans walking together with Severus Snape discussing something. "No running in the corridors Potter, ten points from Slytherin" Snape told the boys as he took the points of the boy. Even though the Potion Master now trained Harry in the Defense, he still tried to take away points from the boy at any time when he thought that Harry was exhibiting James's behavioral characteristics.

"Mother, Professor Snape" he quickly greeted both Professors. "We just returned from Dumbledore's office when we told him about the Diary we found that belonged to Tom Riddle fifty years ago."

"Tom Riddle?" Both Severus Snape and Lily Evans told at the same time.

"Yes, do you know who he was?" asked confused Harry

Lily Evans did not reply and turned around but Harry saw a tear exiting her eye. "That man is responsible for giving you that scar as well as being the grandfather of young Minerva Granger," told Severus Snape calmly and coldly. After the information had been processed in the three youngsters'' brains, Snape saw the horrified look on Draco's face, tears on Minerva's face as well as Harry hugging his mother, trying to comfort her.


	32. An eventful night

Chapter 32

A couple of weeks passed and Harry got lonelier than usual. More people started ignoring him as well as his friends and only few people believed him that he did not perform the attacks himself, among who were Fred and George Weasley from Gryffindor house as well as Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw.

Harry did not really care for what others said about him but one certain redhead was extremely annoying as he for some reason believed that either Harry or his friend Minerva would become a future Dark Lord and as such the boy united the majority of the first three years in Gryffindor against Harry; similar thing happened in Hufflepuff as most people in that house were simply afraid of him but with help of some Prefects like Cedric Diggory, the Puffs were not as antagonistic towards the Slytherin duo. People in the Ravenclaw house seemed to be scared but did not show how they felt and burrowed themselves deeper in the books to avoid any possible confrontations. And Slytherins' reaction for the most part as many of them believed that Harry were the heir of Voldemort.

Five weeks passed and Harry together with his friends was no closer to figuring where the Chamber was or how would they defeat the snake as all Hogwarts roasters were killed. However, things turned to worse when Harry found that yet another group of students got petrified, among whom were three Muggleborns and Draco Malfoy.

"What should we do?" asked Harry his remaining friends Minerva and Luna who were as clueless as he was. The twins helped Harry at times but they were too busy with their schedules to spend more time with Team Potter and Ginny was still unreachable.

"I think that we need to speak to Hagrid. He may know what happened to the Slytherin monster," suggested Minerva and Harry smacked his head. "The girl really needed to go to Ravenclaw," he thought.

"Why did not you tell me that sooner?" asked her Harry

"Sorry Harry but I think that the knowledge of my cousin's petrification coupled with the fact of who my grandfather is did not help and I could not think about the snake properly for a while" the girl replied

"I think that it would be a good idea to see Hagrid tonight as his house is surrounded by swarms of Nargles" Luna commented although two of her friends did not understand what she meant. The trio took the cloak and just as they prepared to put it on after exiting from their common room, they saw Severus Snape.

"Detention you three and ten points off from each of you" he told them. The students looked at each other sadly and followed Professor Snape towards his office. However, Lily Evans Potter soon saved them.

"Sev, where are you taking them?" asked the woman.

"They were going out somewhere and I gave them detention so that they would not sneak from their dorm at night" Lily looked at her former friend with some anger in her eyes and even scary old bat backed down a step.

"I am taking them where they wished to go unless it is the place they could not go; and they will not have detention!" she exclaimed and angrily took the three kids with her, leaving Snape standing for a brief second in surprise; he then left to his office to prepare for another class.

"So where are you heading?" the older witch asked the trio

"We were going to see Hagrid and ask him about the Chamber of Secrets" Harry replied and after seeing that his mother was not against the idea the four people headed to the Hagrid's hut. They walked for a while, as the hut was located on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forrest. As the group reached the hut, Lily Evans knocked on the door and the group waited.

The group immediately heard a dog barking and then the door opened; they saw Hagrid's face. "Hello Lily, what can I do for you?" asked Hagrid

"We came to ask you a few questions if you do not mind" told Lily to her friend and as Hagrid entered his door fully, the group entered his hut.

After the four people got seated, Hagrid looked at their faces and it was clear that he was worried for some reason. "Hagrid, do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets? I learned from someone that you opened it and killed a student and then was expelled because of that." Harry could see that the half giant was somewhat scared but also confused as well.

"I did not open the Chamber, you got to believe me," the man told Harry with pleading eyes.

"I know that but I wanted to ask you if you could tell us anything more about the Chamber; I thought you knew more information that could help us"

"Follow the spiders" before Hagrid could help, the group heard a knock and after Hagrid opened the door he saw three people standing there.

"Hello Hagrid" greeted his colleague Professor Dumbledore.

"Hagrid, it came to my attention that more students got petrified recently and the Ministry cannot allow that to continue. I am sorry Hagrid but you have to go" finished Minster of Magic Cornelius Fudge before the three newcomers spotted Lily Evans and three students.

"And what are you doing here out of bed? "Asked the Minister

"Minster, as far as I am concerned I am a Professor and as such can chaperone the students even at night to go to places like Hagrid's hut. We were just visiting our friend." It seemed that the Minister did not really care, as he did not come to the hut to punish Harry.

A third man spoke and Harry knew that he was trouble. The man had long blond hair and had an aristocratic pose. He looked at the group with superiority and bore a strong resemblance to his friend Draco. "I think we are not finished Cornelius as I just arrived from the board of Directors who voted unanimously to remove Headmaster Dumbledore from his post." He gave the parchment to Dumbledore.

"As you can see, the board was extremely displeased with all the petrifications going on, especially when it came to the highly important people." The group knew that he spoke of his son and was mad. "I also got this petition to put you Professor Dumbledore to Azkaban with Hagrid as some people in Wizengamot, Minister included thought that the Headmaster should also share some punishment from allowing the students to get petrified as well keeping Hagrid protected."

"Mr. Malfoy, this is madness, you cannot expect Headmaster to leave Hogwarts! What if school will get attacked again and Professor Dumbledore will not be able to help!" exclaimed Harry

"Mr. Potter, I heard a lot about you from my son Draco. It seems that you made quite an impression regarding him. However, I will personally help to make Hogwarts safer as it is our priority to help all students, even Muggleborns" he told the boy and Harry saw that his mother sent an angry glare at the man as Lily and the students knew just how vile the man was.

"Who will protect Hogwarts when Professor Dumbledore will be away?" asked Harry as he wanted to know who will be the Headmaster and he knew from his Lordship status that he was on par with Lucius Malfoy and as such neither of them was superior in the social standing in Wizarding World.

"I think my old friend Severus would do a good job. I already sent an owl to him and he will begin his new duties from tomorrow. I am sure he will handle the castle well" the wizard smirked.

Harry saw that Dumbledore sighed and left the hut together with the other three wizards, and Lucius Malfoy in particular tried to leave the hut as quickly as possible as he could not stand to be present in such conditions for long periods of time. Soon, only Lily and three students were left in the hut.

"What are we going to do?" asked Harry his mother as he panicked.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I will ask Sirius to try to release both Hagrid and Dumbledore from Azkaban. However, I think that we need to return to the castle.

As the group was walking to the castle, they saw Severus Snape standing at its entrance. He looked rather happy and that scared the hell out of Harry. "Detention Potter, Granger and Lovegood. I expect to see you three tomorrow in my office" he told them but before the group could do anything else, they heard hissing behind their backs. The shadow itself was sufficient to tell them just WHO exited the castle.

"Ran away you fools, I will handle the snake." Severus Snape closed levitated the group of the harm's way and looked directly at the snake, as he wanted to buy the group time. The basilisk looked at its victim and everyone froze.

Severus Snape dropped on grass and it was clear to Harry and his friends that he wet his pants. Still, he stood directly in front of the snake and did not move. The basilisk lifted its head above the ground but was extremely surprised to see Snape not getting petrified. As the mighty serpent had not expected that outcome, the large reptile slithered back to the castle.

"You will not get away from me!" shouted Harry as he ran after the snake. Meanwhile, Lily and the girls ran towards Snape and sat next to him to check if he was alive.

"Professor Snape is alive. It seemed that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks saved the Professor from the mighty serpent's gaze." Lily did not even bother to listen to the two girls as she planted a deep kiss in her former friend's mouth and then hugged him; to her surprise the mighty and scary Professor Snape, the horror of the students, lost consciousness.

Meanwhile Harry ran with all the strength he could at the snake. The boy did not care on what would happen to him, as he knew that the snake hurt his friend who he loved. "Wait, loved?" Harry thought briefly as he approached the snake.

The beast crawled towards the Hospital Wing and Harry was horrified at the implications of what the snake wanted to accomplish. The young Slytherin ran like the lightning into the Hospital Wing and the doors got destroyed into small pieces as Harry's anger that manifested into accidental magic traveled across the room.

As Harry entered the room, he saw that the snake's head was already above his best friend and some saliva dropped on the bed. Harry knew that the snake intended to feast upon the girl and then later on other people in the wing. The boy sent a powerful Reducto at the snake but it did not accomplish anything important.

Harry's anger reached the new level and he started throwing a curse after curse, he already tried the levitation spell, the stunner and size-diminishing hex but none seemed to be working efficiently against the beast. Still, Harry was firing more and more spells at the snake.

However, the massive attack was not in vain as the snake got distracted from its intended victim and turned its gaze at Harry. However, nothing happened and the snake was now even more confused as it did not expect two people to be immune from its charm.

As the boy started firing even more spells, some of them getting closer to the Dark Spells category, a number of Professors as well as Prefects entered the room and saw the snake fighting Harry; the sudden entrance of new witches and wizards scared the snake and with last bit of strength Harry had, the boy sent the snake away from the Hospital wing by a powerful charm he did not even know about that exited his wand on its own without the boy's thinking. After the spell was done and the snake was pushed away, Harry Potter fell unconscious, as he was exhausted from the fight he just performed. The last thing the boy heard was the snake slithering quickly away to its chamber.


	33. Reaction to the Battle of Hospital Wing

Chapter 33

Next morning Harry Potter woke up and saw a number of faces looking at him. He was sad that he could not Hermione, but then remembered that she was petrified and could not check how he was doing. As the boy slowly got up, he saw the faces of his mother, Minerva and Luna, "What happened?" asked Harry

"The Basilisk was in the Hospital Wing and almost ate the petrified students but you saved them just in time" His mother looked at her son sympathetically. Harry tried to remember what happened the previous night and soon remembered it fully.

"Why have I not been petrified?" asked Harry as he looked at his mother and friends.

"We talked about this Harry but we are not sure. I think that this could be because you are a parselmouth." Answered Minerva as she looked at the raven-haired boy. The group did not know what to say next before they got interrupted by the tall figure of the dungeon bat.

"She is right, Parselmouths cannot be killed or petrified by the Basilisk's look but they still can be killed by its venom" Severus Snape tried to speak coldly, like he usually did although the three women and Harry remembered how scared the former Potions Master was at night.

"But that does not make sense, that means that you should be a Parselmouth as well!" exclaimed Harry.

"I knew that I am a Parselmouth, you silly boy! Unlike you, I am not as ignorant to not know the facts. Most members of the Salazar's line have this ability. In fact, Salazar Slytherin was the first wizard in Britain to have that gift and as such all Parselmouths are his descendants." Harry thought about what he just learned and a realization came into his head.

"Hermione! She is related to Slytherin!" he exclaimed loudly

"Good job Potter, I am amused that you did not figure it earlier"

"But why was she petrified in the first place? I mean she is related to him albeit very distantly." He asked his Professor.

"My niece is not a Parselmouth and as such is not immune to the gaze. You however, are a Parselmouth and therefore the snake can not kill you with its look" Snape hated to make things simple to his students, especially the Potter brat as he called him but he tried to be at least somewhat decent to the boy as he knew that if he were abusive to the boy, he would never again receive a single kiss from the love of his life.

Harry Potter got up slowly and put on his school uniform, after which he went to the Great Hall to eat breakfast; the three friends left two Professors alone. As the students arrived at the Great Hall, they encountered a lot if mixed reactions, as the whole school by now knew what happened the previous night.

One House that was in particular very pleasant to him was the badger house, as the majority of students knew that the "apparent Dark Lord" and "Muggle born petrified" risked his life to save the petrified students and fought the snake. And with the help of Hufflepuff Prefects like Cedric Diggory, the house was very relaxed when they were in the presence of Harry. As Harry learned later, he later got a new nickname, "He-Who-Talks-To-Snakes".

The Ravenclaw house was still indifferent to Harry but the boy could feel that the majority of the house warmed up to him at least a bit as he saved among others their favorite Prefect, Penelope Clearwater, who was Head Girl that year.

In most Slytherin's eyes Harry was not their King, as he could talk to snakes and the majority of the house realized that he was the direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin. However, there was a splinter group in Slytherin that loathed Harry; that group consisted mostly of the children of former Death Eaters and was led by Pansy Parkinson, who used Crabb and Goyle as well as Bullstrode as her bodyguards.

The Gryffindor House had very mixed reaction to the newly discovered knowledge. One part of the house now saw that Harry was their ally as he fought the snake to save numerous lives, including some Gryffindors but the other half that was lead by Percy and Ron were anti Harry as they thought that the boy was a threat to the school and in Percy's case the boy thought that the young parselmouth had harmed his girlfriend on purpose.

As Harry ate his breakfast, he knew that many people eyed him and that made him uneasy. He hated to be in the center of attention and wished to be surrounded by only few people, with whom he could have meaningful conversations. And despite all his hunger, he could not eat a lot, as he felt uneasy to eat since he was looked and talked about by the rest of the school.

Harry looked briefly at his Gryffindor enemy Ronald Weasley and saw that he was eating like a gluttonous pig. That disgusted the boy and he looked at the other tables.

As Harry was finishing his meal, he saw that his owl flew towards him and as soon as it reached the boy, the bird dropped a letter on his plate, after which she flew away to the Owlry. Harry looked at the letter and opened it.

"_Dear Prongslet,_

_I am sorry to inform you but I was unsuccessful in freeing Hagrid from his sentence. He will have to go to Azkaban, which is one of the most depressing places to be. Imagine if I were there for say ten years or more. I would probably go crazy!_

_On the more positive note, I heard that Professor Dumbledore will return to Hogwarts as I managed to convince the Board of Governors that if the Headmaster was there, yesterday night's events would not have occurred. So expect the old senile man to return to Hogwarts._

_See you,_

_Sirius Black_"

Harry finished his letter and was a bit pleased, as he knew that Hogwarts would be more protected from the snake. However, that was not enough for him, as Harry was determined to stop the snake from petrifying anyone else. Weeks passed and one day in early April he thought about Hagrid's words "Follow the spiders" as well as the information on Acromantula's fear of the Basilisk, coupled with the fact that Hagrid did have a spider in his Hogwarts years, the boy decided to investigate more about the Basilisk.

"Harry, are you all right? I see Nargles all around you" told him Luna

"I think that we should check Hagrid's former spider and see if it knows anything important. " he replied to Luna. The two friends then were joined by Minerva, who also expressed the desire to help Harry and the three friends planned to go to visit the spider later at night.

A/N: next chapter the trio goes to meet Aragog, will they survive their visit to the forest as well as learn anything new?

The following chapter: The Chamber of Secrets! Will anybody die? Who will survive? Read and find out!


	34. Forbidden Forest

The month of April had ended and the trio did not have a chance to speak with the spider as for some reason every time they tried to escape the castle, they always encountered Filch and as the result, instead of spending time investigating they had detentions. Harry was the unhappiest of the three as he wanted to be done with the problem and somehow someone was messing up with their plans.

On May 6, Harry was walking towards the Great Hall when he saw Ronald Weasley crawling away from Poisy, who was prepared to bite the foolish boy. "Poisy, please stand down" told Harry to Minerva's familiar and the little boomslang stopped attacking and scaring Ron; however, Harry's help was unappreciated, as the Gryffindor shouted "Dark Lord" at Harry and ran away, while dropping a piece of Parchment.

"What was that for?" asked Harry the snake

"The ssstupid boy wasss ssspying on Harry Potter and hiss friendss. I bit him and gave only a tiny dose of my venom that would simply keep him in the Hospital Wing for a night or two"

"Poisy, you cannot just bite people!" exclaimed Harry as he took the parchment away. He was soon joined by Minerva, who was curious on what the parchment contained.

"Do you think it is a similar object, like the diary?" The girl was suspicious of the object and Harry touched the parchment with his wand and wrote his name. "My name is Harry Potter." What happened next was unexpected, as a couple lines appeared on the parchment.

"_Mr. Moony would like to congratulate Mr. Harry Potter in finding this map. Good job kid, I think Prongs would be proud_." Harry then saw another line appear.

"_Mr. Prongs would like to congratulate Mr. Harry Potter for finding this map. Also, if you by any chance see Snivelius Snape, tell him that Mr. Prongs thinks that he is a slimy ugly git that should stay away from Flower, granted Flower to be alive_"

Harry was extremely amused and then read the third line. "_Mr. Padfoot would also like to congratulate Mr. Harry Potter for finding this Parchment, Mr. Padfoot also would like to suggest to pour water on Snivelius when you see him as he is most likely still have not had a shower_"

Harry then finished the last line. "_Mr. Wormtail agrees with other Messrs.' and would like to suggest putting a mouse in Snivelius's pants when he is sleeping_" All those lines were very funny, especially the parts about Snape. Harry then tried to remember where he heard the words Moony, Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail.

"What are you holding here, Mr. Potter?" asked Snape as he appeared out of nowhere.

"I was reading the sentences that are written here." He said, not wanting to give the parchment back.

"Really, Potter? Give it to me!" The man commanded and with force took the paper. He then saw that writings disappeared.

"My name is Professor Severus Snape! Show me all your secrets!" he commanded. Four new lines appeared.

"_Mr. Moony would like to tell to Professor Snape to sod off and stay from other people's affairs_"

"_Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony and wished dirty git Snivelius to eat some dung_"

"_Mr. Padfoot thinks that this is a brilliant idea and expressed sorrow as he cannot ran at dirty smelly Snivelius and bite and pee on him_"

"_Mr. Wormtail agrees with the rest of Marauders and suggests to take a dive in the great lake as the Hogwarts's bathrooms are too clean for him"_ Severus Snape finished reading the lines and by his look he was ready to murder Harry Potter.

"Where did you get this parchment? Did Sirius Black or Remus Lupin give it to you?" it seemed that the storm was approaching as the glass in the windows broke from the chaotic destructive force that begin to radiate from the Defense Professor.

"Why would they give it to me?" Harry was confused as he had no clue to Professor Snape's questions as well as scared, as the Dungeon Bat was ready to attack.

"Your father and his friends created this map!" he shouted and as he was ready to attack Harry, Lily Evans Potter appeared.

"What is going on? Why are you acting so childishly, Sev? She asked her friend.

"Your son got your husband's map and even in his death, James Potter still had found a way to annoy me!" Lily glared at the Head of the Slytherin House.

"How about a compromise, you apologize to my son and I will take this map away from him, so that it cannot insult you" she suggested and after weighting the options, Severus Snape apologized to Harry, then gave the map to Lily and left the corridor.

"I hope you are fine Harry, I know it was a shock to talk to your father after all these years, and mark my words, I will have a talk with Sirius and Remus as to why they have not shown you this map earlier. Now, I know that you three want to investigate the spider-don't look like that at me Harry, as I am considered to be the brightest witch of my generation."

Harry looked at the floor as he knew that his plan was now doomed since his mother would never allow them to have a walk in the Forbidden Forest. Lily sensed that and looked at her son cheerfully. "Harry, don't be sad, I know what you are thinking now and yes, you three will not go there by yourselves. However, you will have a chance to investigate as I am coming with you" She smirked and Harry was surprised.

"I never thought that you were so devious, mother" Harry hugged Lily, as he was grateful.

"Really? Just because our life at home was ordinary, does not mean that I prefer the grey life. Besides, I did marry one of the Marauders" she told his son. "Now, I cannot go tonight as I have papers to grade but tomorrow my evening is free. I will collect you three from the library tomorrow at nine.

The Friday passed quickly and the three friends could not wait for the day to end. As their last class ended, they quickly put their belongings in their bags and ran from the classrooms to the library. At nine in the evening, Lily appeared and the four soon began their journey into the Forbidden Forest.

The group walked passed the Hagrid's Hut and soon they entered the forest. It was a cold night and Harry regretted that he did not take a sweater with him as hair rose on his skin. Lily saw that and using a wordless spell made the group warmer.

"I think that Aragog, who is the spider Hagrid had about fifty years ago, lives somewhere in the middle of the forest. Now, I want you to be prepared for what you see there as over the years Aragog formed a colony and lives with many other large Acromantulas, that would not hesitate to kill and eat you." She warned the children and the group progressed in the Forest.

As they walked inside the Forest, Harry was a bit scared as he felt something in the air. As the group walked by a small lake in the forest, they saw one of its very dangerous inhabitants- a tall and bulky beast that was larger than a lion with a large, hairy head that had a read beard. At the end of its body, the creature had a scorpion like sting that made a couple of drops that indicated that the creature was ready to poison them.

"Look out, a manticore!" cried Lily and formed a protective shield around them. The woman hoped that the creature would loose interest in the group and soon leave but that was not the case as the creature roared and cried something that resembled " I will eat you guts!"

The manticore jumped at the group and with a couple of powerful hits destroyed the protective shield. The group started hexing the creature but its skin was resistant to their spells; their attack only infuriated the creature as it's opened its mouth and prepared its teeth as well as claws for the attack.

"Reducto" "Stupefy" "Petrificus Totalus" The group continued sending different hexes at the creature but none seemed to work.

"Firestormus Powerus" shouted Lily the spell as the last resort and a large ring of fire surrounded them. The manticore hesitated and after a few unsuccessful attempts was ready to leave when it saw that the strength of the fire started fading that culminate in fire's destruction, as well as Lily Evans fainting from exhaustion and falling on the ground.

"Food" screamed the manticore as it raced at the group. However, for some reason Harry decided to try his mother's spell and shouted it while pointing his wand at the manticore. The fire erupted from his wand and surrounded the creature; however, the intensity and temperature of the fire overcame even the manticore's defenses against magic and when Harry looked at their attacker next, he saw a skeleton with some burnt pieces of flesh.

The fire that was produced by Harry soon started traveling around the forest and the group was afraid that they would perish as well. "Luna, send "Aqua Eructo" at the fire. Minerva, send "Glacius" at the water that Luna will send. " The girls listed to him and sent water related spells at the fire. Meanwhile. Harry looked at the nearby lake and with the use the levitation charms he knew, "Wingardium Leviosa" as well as the combination of "Ascendio" and "Accio" towards the water in the lake at the fire. The fight against the chaotic force of heat was soon over and the fire was extinguished. The three friends also dropped on the ground, exhausted. Harry was secretly glad that he learned some fourth year spells at home during his summer between the two school years.

The next time the group woke up they saw themselves wrapped up in web, looking downward. Harry immediately understood what had occurred and was both angry and afraid, as he knew that the local Acromantulas had found them and brought to their layer.

"Hello human, I usually do not see human wonder around in the forest. It looks like my sons and daughters will have a feast tonight but before that happens I wish to know why you so foolishly came to my forest to become our next meal?"

Harry started talking, as he knew that by doing that he had time to get free. "We are friends of Hagrid. He is in trouble and is accused of letting the Chamber of Secret's monster out to attack students."

"You are wrong, friend of Hagrid. I was but a small spider that lived in Hagrid's box for few years and never explored the castle. The girl was found in the bathroom and I never even saw her body. The monster that killed her is an ancient evil that we spiders are afraid to speak its name. When Hagrid comes to visit us, I do not allow my sons and daughters to eat him but tonight they will feast upon you three."

"Oh, shit," said Harry as he saw that one of the spiders crawled towards Luna and after biting her, started its meal. Fortunately by then, Harry freed himself and dropped on the ground. He remembered the plan what the group came up as the last resort and freed Poisy from his coat. The snake dropped on the ground and Harry quietly told two spells, and then sent the snake a couple of feet away.

"Luna!" he shouted as he saw that one of his friends now had two small holes on her arm. However, before any permanent damage could be done to her or the other two prisoners, a large snake with yellow eyes appeared and quickly crawled towards the spiders.

"Monster-Who-Must-Not-Be-Names" cried Aragog and upon his cry the spiders started retreating in their smaller caves, as they were mortally afraid of the snake. One spider however did not leave as it continued to suck the blood from Luna's body.

"Arania Exumai" shouted Harry as the spell hit the spider in the chest. Normally, the spell would only stun a spider, especially an adult Acromantula but Harry Potter was royally pissed and that was evident in the spell's power as upon the impact it threw the spider many feet away as well as killing it.

As Lily and Minerva escaped their prisons, they helped the weakened girl to climb of the net as well. Luna Lovegood lay on the ground bleeding and her skin was very cold. "Vulnera Sanentur" the woman told three times, while pointing at the girl. The injuries healed but it was clear that Luna would still need to spend time in the Hospital Wing for at least a week.

"Well done Poisy" told Minerva as she looked at her familiar as she shrank it to his original size and took off the yellow glowing effect from its eyes. The four humans and the snake did not know how to get away from the cave and soon found out that the spiders learned of the trick. However, two new yellow lights appeared and the blue Ford "Anglia" flew towards them and opened its doors. The group climbed in and the flying car exited the cave safely and while chased by the spiders for a bit, managed to escape the chase and soon landed next to Hagrid's Hut. As its passengers exited the car, it flew back into the Forest and disappeared into the darkness.

"Well, at least we know for sure that Hagrid is innocent" Harry told his friends. Lily cast a silent levitation charm and carried the wounded girl into the Hospital Wing, while Harry and Minerva ran of to their dormitory. Harry was glad that it was the Friday night as he planned to sleep for a long time after this adventure.

A/N: Next Chapter: The Chamber of Secrets(finally!)Will anybody die? Who will survive? Read and find out.

The following chapter: The Aftermath of the events in Chamber of Secrets. What will happen to Ginny? Hermione? Minerva? Harry? Lily? Severus? Read and find out


	35. The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 35

Three weeks passed and Harry's Professors started assigning even more homework, as the exam would start soon. Professor Flitwick was generous to his students as he did not give much more homework than he usually did; however some Professors were not as generous and the Heads of Slytherin and Gryffindor houses almost doubled the usual amount of homework required by each Professor. Even Professor Evans was giving more homework than usual, as she wanted her students to do well in her class.

On May twenty eighth, Harry Potter entered his Defense class and saw that all the desks were pushed to the side and the room got expanded. The boy then saw Professor Snape, who stood at the end of the room, waiting for the students to arrive.

"Today we will have a practical lesson as I wish you all to practice your dueling skills against each other. Potter, you will be fighting against Parkinson and Weasley. The rest assemble in groups and duel." Harry saw that two of his enemies approached him and drew their wands.

"I hope you are for this Potter, as you will pay for what you did to Ginny!" threatened Ron.

"Yes, I will be so glad to vanquish that smile from your face, it is unfortunate that I could not duel the mudblood as well.

Harry smirked and prepared to duel. The three duelists looked at each other and the curses began flying around. As Harry saw two red rays of light flying at him, he made a shield charm and defended himself. Ron then sent a stunner at Harry, which the boy deflected with ease. "Rectusempra" shouted Harry and while Ron was laughing from the effects of the tickling charm, Harry focus on Pansy, who appeared to be a formidable opponent unlike Ron.

"Everte Stratum" shouted the girl and threw Harry a few feet backwards. After Harry stood up, he quickly dodged another stunner from the girl.

"Ascendio" shouted Harry as he lifted the girl in the air. But before he could stun her, Ron re joined the match and sent a disarming spell at Harry. Harry defended himself with ease and then threw Ron on the ground.

"Incendio" shouted the girl and Harry defended himself with "Aguamenti"; water flew from his wand and destroyed the fire.

"Expelliarmus" shouted Ron and accidently hit Harry. His wand flew from his hand and dropped on the ground.

"You are defeated Potter!" shouted Pansy with happiness and send another Incendio at Harry. Snape was surprised that the witch would actually try to burn her opponent and tried to defend Harry but then the entire class saw a very impressive magic. As Harry saw that the fire flew at him, his wand immediately flew in his hand and the boy instinctively created a powerful shield around him, which the fire could not penetrate. With his next move, Harry sent a silent shockwave, which went through entire classroom and threw everyone on the floor save Snape, as he quickly applied a wordless spell to stay put on the ground.

"What just happened?" asked Harry as looked at everyone. He then remembered and got confused at first as he just performed an intuitive dueling first wandlessly then silently with the use of a wand. After that, he remembered just why he got disarmed. As he saw his two opponents stand up, the boy remembered a spell Snape taught him that could be used in duels against multiple opponents although from what he remembered, it was a very simple spell.

"Expelliarmus Maximus. Aguamenti" he sent two spells at his opponents at first, with the first spell knocking their wands out of their hands and then sending water at them.

"Parkinson, detention and fifteen points from Slytherin for endangering a student." Snape told the girl and then gave the points to everyone he deemed worthy of getting any points at all; Harry was surprised at receiving thirty points from him. As the class ended, Harry took his bag and quickly left the room as he did not want to hear any praise from people for performing wandless magic, albeit unintentionally.

Next day Harry was extremely lonely as most of his friends were missing, some were petrified in the Hospital wings, Luna was there too albeit for different reasons and Ginny vanished from his site at all, only Minerva talked to him out of all of his friends.

In the evening, the two were walking in a doorway and saw words written in red that were painted on the floor. "Harry, this is blood," the girl pointed out. The two came closer to the line and read the horrible sentence.

"Her skeleton will remain in the Chamber forever." The two looked at each other and did not know what to do when they heard Hogwarts Professors walking in their direction. The students quickly hid behind a column and saw Professor Evans and Snape seeing the writing.

"This means that the school will be closed. The parents will be furious at this." Said Snape coldly.

"Severus, we need to help Miss Weasley."

"But Lily, we don't even now where the chamber of secrets is!" The two students looked at each other with horrified looks and realized that their friend was now a victim of the snake.

"I must fight it," said Harry to Minerva

"But Harry, we do not know where the entrance is" told the girl but then remembered something. She hit her head with the palm of her hand.

"I know where the entrance is" the girl told Harry, who was extremely confused by that point and did not follow his friend's train of thought.

"Professors!" shouted the girl and saw that the two Professors noticed the two students. Harry could see the evil glares Snape was sending him as the boy knew that the Slytherin bat always tried to put him in trouble, while his mother had a mixed look of concern as well as some anger as the older witch did not appreciate her son walking around Hogwarts at night.

"Harry, what is it?" asked the witch

"Minerva said she thinks she knows where the entrance to the Chamber is"

"Yes, as I recall, the big ugly spider told that the girl was killed in the bathroom" Before the girl could continue, she was interrupted by the older witch, who said two words.

"Moaning Myrtle". Those words confused Severus Snape and he looked at his friend, not following her logic.

"Who is this Myrtle?" he asked. Snape did not like to admit that he did not know something and now he was extremely embarrassed to ask his friend about something that he did not know.

"Moaning Myrtle is a ghost that lives on the third floor in the bathroom. I first met her in my fifth year when you said that word and I cried as I lost my best friend that day. " The four people then ran towards the bathroom to ask the ghost about the chamber.

As they entered the bathroom, they saw that it quiet at first; however, the silence was interrupted by a ghost that flew towards them crying. "Who are you? O, I know you, little girl. You found the book that some other girl threw at me" she looked at Minerva.

"Myrtle, could you tell us how you died?" asked Harry the friendly but annoying ghost.

"Oh, yes, it was a horrible time. Once, Olive Hornby teased me and I came here to cry. Soon I heard some boy speaking in here and tried to tell him to get out but then I saw large yellow eyes and the next thing I knew that I was dead. I saw the yellow eyes from there" she pointed at a sink in the front of the bathroom.

"Thank you Myrtle" the group approached he sink and after a close inspection found out a small snake statue on it. The snake was similar to one of the paintings Harry saw in the Slytherin room, where Salazar Slytherin held a small snake that looked like the statue.

"Open" he guessed and after a couple attempts the sink got hidden and a large hole appeared in the bathroom. It was now clear where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets lay.

"You are not going!" shouted Lily after pushing her son from the hole.

"Mother, you will need all the help you can get and we don't have time to call others as Ginny could be killed by then. We have to go now" Harry stood in front of the hole and saw that his mother looked with admiration at him.

"Alright but be careful. I am going first." The elder witch jumped in the hole, and then was followed by Severus Snape.

"Harry, if you die, you could always share my bathroom" suggested Myrtle and after saying "thanks" the two students jumped in the hole.

Harry had an unpleasant experience in traveling in the tunnel as he did not enjoy the slide, only Gringotts rides were worse than this and harry was extremely glad when he landed on the ground at the end of the tunnel.

"Where to now?" asked Minerva. After the group looked around, they found one tunnel, in which they walked until they reached a door. After Harry opened it, the two adults and two students entered it and saw an unexpected sight. In the middle of the room stood young Tom Riddle, with Slytherin status being behind him; Ginny lay on the floor motionless.

Harry ran towards the girl and in the process accidently dropped his wand. He touched the girl and felt her skin being extremely cold. "She is not dead, not yet. I have not drained her life force yet; however, soon she will die and I will escape this diary." He took Harry's wand

"Give me my wand, Tom! Or should I say Voldemort" Harry saw that the older boy was furious that Harry knew his secret.

"Well done Harry Potter, you amuse me. But you wont need the wand, as the snake will not come if not called for. However, I will deal with those three pests." He prepared to first kill Minerva but Snape transfigured a rock and saved the girl.

"Impressive, but no one can defeat Lord Voldemort." The boy started dueling with both Lily and Severus and soon disarmed both of them. Snape also received a spell in his stomach and started crying from pain.

"Why did you jump in front of me?" asked the Potion Mistress.

"Because I love you Lily!" said Snape and the two kissed for a minute before Lily felt that her friend had died. She started crying.

"Good, another witch had lost her loved one. Now I would like you three to see my pet Rowena kill you! "He shouted and called the snake. The snake appeared and Lily unfortunately saw its reflection in the water while crying and got petrified.

"Prepare to die Minerva Granger and Harry Potter," he said with a cold voice although the two students could tell that he was enjoying the fight. Harry and Minerva were horrified and ran from the snake; however it was very fast and soon reached the two.

"Don't hurt us" cried Minerva and got paralyzed from fear and Harry tried to defend the girl.

"Another speaker?" said Rowena confused.

"Yes, we are Parselmouths as well. Minerva is the descendent of Salazar Slytherin and it appears that I might be too" said Harry quickly. He did not know why he spoke to the snake but at that point he was barely thinking as he tried to defend Minerva.

The basilisk looked at Tom Riddle and then at Harry and Minerva and stood silent and motionless for some time above the students, as she was unsure of what to do. "Kill them!" shouted Riddle.

"Please, don't kill us. "The two students hugged each other, as they were scared to die. "I do not want to die before I tell Hermione I love her" thought Harry and cried before he actually realized what he just said in his mind. As Harry thought about Hermione and how he loved her and then thought about all his friends and family, he started glowing and white light flew in different directions, some of which hit the snake.

When Harry opened his eyes, he found out that the snake was inspecting him and before he could do anything, the basilisk licked his face. "Thank you for freeing me from mind control charm he put on me" Before anyone could react, the basilisk crawled quickly towards Riddle and put its fangs in the diary.

"No!" screamed Voldemort as he disintegrated. Ginny Weasley immediately awoke and saw her saviors, as well as the snake. The girl was extremely confused and did not know what to do as she though that the snake would kill her.

After the snake destroyed the diary, she turned and looked at Harry. "Thank you for freeing me, now I can actually control my sight and look at people without actually killing them. I was put here as a guard of Hogwarts since Salazar hated Muggles and was afraid that they would try to wipe out the population of people in the castle and left me to guard Hogwarts. But Tom Riddle controlled me and made me kill that girl fifty years ago" the snake finished her story.

Harry looked at the two girls, then at the snake and finally at the two Professors, of whom one was petrified while other was dead. The snake took the adults in her mouth as it would be easier for her to carry them and then the students climbed on the snake, as it would help them escape this dungeon. The snake delivered the five people to the bathroom, after which she crawled back in the Chamber. Harry closed its entrance and then sat with his friends on the floor, looking at his mother and Snape.

A/N: Next Chapter: the aftermath of the events of Chamber of Secrets as well as people's reactions to it.


	36. The Aftermath

Chapter 36

Harry sat on the floor of the bathroom together with his two friends, as well as the bodies of two Professors, one of whom was petrified and the other killed. After a half an hour of relaxation, the three students used their wands and carried the bodies to the Hospital Wing; Madam Pomfrey was not amused, as more patients had arrived in her care. The woman gave some potions to the three and they went to speak with Headmaster on what had occurred that night.

When they entered the Headmaster's office, they found out that it was extremely busy as their families were occupying it. Molly Weasley sat in a red chair with Ron next to her, Merope Granger was present and sat on the opposite of the Weasley's matriarch; two Professors were also Present, one of whom was Professor McGonagall who stood next to the Headmaster's desk as well as the Headmaster himself, who sat at his desk.

"Professors, we wished to speak to you. The monster that tried to kill students is neutralized and it was Tom Riddle who orchestrated the whole thing" Harry saw that Professor Dumbledore was somewhat surprised at that turn of the events but at the same time he was happy that Harry was safe.

"What did you do to my daughter, Potter? Ronald claimed that you hexed her so that Ginny would avoid her family" interrupted Molly Weasley

"Mum, he saved my life from Tom Riddle and the basilisk. I did not do all those attacks on purpose, I swear," told Ginny but her mother decided to ignore her daughter.

"As for you Ginny, I cannot believe that you did all that, wait until you will return home and I will teach you to behave properly as well as punish for associating with the wrong crowd." It was clear that Mrs. Weasley was determined to carry on her threat and Harry did not want to allow that.

"No you will not" he told the woman and stood in front of the girl.

"Excuse me, Potter? You have no business on what to do with my daughter, in fact, I ban her from talking to you and listen to your corrupting ways. " The older witch looked at her daughter with seriousness in her eyes and a tear exited Ginny's eye.

"You will not do that as I forbid you to take care of her!" said Harry and that puzzled the adults. Dumbledore was amused but did not say anything as the man wished to know what Harry wished to say, while the Transfiguration Professor was appalled by Harry's attitude towards the older authority but seeing that the Headmaster refused to join the debate, she chose to side with him. And Merope was silent as well as she wished to see if Harry could defend his friend.

"You have no say in this matter Potter" shouted the angry witch

"Yes I do. As a matter of fact, I saved Ginny Weasley from the basilisk, even though I did not have to kill it but I defeated Voldy once again and since I saved Ginny, she has a life debt that needs to be paid" The Weasley matriarch just realized what the implications of Harry's words were but Harry continued speaking.

"I think that if Ginny were to return to your home, she would be the subject of bullying, at least from Ronald and Percy as well as yourself, I saw earlier in the year how two of your sons reacted to her placement in Slytherin. As such, I wish to invoke the life debt Ginerva Weasley owes me and make her my ward, Ginerva Weasley-Potter as well as taking her from your care." Magic radiated from his wand and it was clear that Ginny was now under Harry's protection.

"You will pay for this Potter!" told Mrs. Weasley and she left the office with her son; as Ron was leaving he tried to insult Harry but the boy put a silencing charm on him. After the two Weasleys left, Dumbledore looked at the group and spoke.

"That issue is settled then. However, I wish to speak to you Harry about your adventure in the Chamber of Secrets." Harry told the tale on how the group found out about Aragog and visited him, then discovered that Ginny was taken and went to rescue her after learning where the entrance to the Chamber was. He then told how they found the basilisk and freed it from Riddle's control as well as destroying the diary. When Harry told that Snape got killed, the boy could see sadness on the older man's face.

"Albus, don't you find it strange that the basilisk's name is also the given name of one of the founders?" asked the deputy Headmistress.

"It is no strange coincidence at all Minerva, as a matter of fact, the two are connected as Salazar Slytherin married Rowena Ravenclaw and the two had two children before Salazar left Hogwarts; one of the children was Helena Ravenclaw who died in her twenties whereas the other girl carried on Slytherin's heritage and produced a number of Parselmouths over the centuries, with some women from the Slytherin bloodline marrying into some prominent families, like Potters and Gaunts as well as Prince. However, over the years, the Gaunt family got bankrupt and lost its standing only to produce the most powerful Dark Lord in the Wizarding History."

"Professor, you surely don't mean that I am related to Voldemort?" asked Harry his Headmaster

"You are quite right Harry; in fact all old wizarding families are interrelated to some extent; however, few are actual heirs to the founders. Your family and Voldemort's actually were two branches of one family, the Peverell brothers"

"The three brothers?" asked Ginny, as she knew her childhood stories well.

"You are correct Miss Weasley. The three Peverell brothers did actually exist, but it is still speculated whether or not their supposed gifts were in fact what they are assumed to be. The older brother, Antioch was brutally murdered in a duel while his two younger brothers survived. After loosing the love of his life, Cadmus descended into madness and killed himself. And the younger brother, Ignotus had a daughter, who married Draco Slytherin. They had one child, Salazar."

That new piece of information got processed in the peoples' minds and Harry was extremely surprised to learn that information as he now knew that he and Voldemort descendent from the Founders of the school. It was no surprise to the boy now that he was put in Slytherin; he thought it was ironic that his father hated Slytherins, especially Severus Snape, when in fact James Potter was a direct descendant of Slytherin himself.

"I understand that what I told you will be difficult to believe at first but I would also wish you to know another tale, which I think is highly important for you to know." He looked at his deputy and the older witch understood what Dumbledore wanted her to do although she was still ashamed of her past mistake.

"Before I tell you this, please swear not to tell anyone this tale, as it is embarrassing for me to spread around. However, you could tell it to your mother and your best friend, as I know that Miss Granger will not tell anyone else. " After seeing nods from the group, the older witch continued.

"It was a dark and snowy night in 1955. I was in a Three Broomsticks drinking Fire Whiskey as I just had one of the most terrible days in my life- the man I fell in love about a decade before that year was killed in some accident. I did not marry him because he was a Muggle and I could not live my Magical heritage behind so I said no to him when he proposed. However, I took his death badly and wanted to forget it." The witch continued and everyone in the room felt bad for Professor McGonagall's situation.

"As I sat in the pub, a young man came to me, who I remembered from school to be Tom Riddle. He was my top competitor in Hogwarts although I was one year ahead of him. I remember how we bickered a lot, since I was a Gryffindor and he was a Slytherin but when I saw him in 1955, I felt that he changed and was even more mature. I don't remember who started the argument but we soon were shouting at each other that eventually scared everyone and we were left alone. After a substantial argument, we felt some desire for each other and we spent a night together; the next day he left and I soon found out that I was pregnant. In 1956 Merope was born as I remembered that Tom mother's name was Merope and hoped foolishly that he would return. However, I raised my daughter alone for eleven years before she went to Hogwarts" Harry and Minerva were listening to their Professor's tale and were horrified at the implications.

"The last time I met Tom face to face was in 1957 when he applied to a Defense Position although Professor Dumbledore dismissed him. After the decline of his application, I saw him in a corridor but he was too angry to even talk to me. " Before the witch could continue, Merope stood up and hugged her mother, which was followed by Minerva Granger, who repeated her mother's action.

"Now, I want you to know this, Harry and Minerva" Dumbledore spoke to the two students "It does not matter that you are related to Tom, especially you Minerva in the sense that it does not make you as evil as he is. Choices are what make you who you are. Also, as I can already see, you two have a strong capacity for love, which Tom apparently never did." He then transferred his gaze towards Merope.

"Mrs. Granger, would you like to be the Slytherin's Head of the house as Severus Snape cannot fulfill it any longer?" He saw a nod from the witch and smiled.

"Professor, how could the diary recreate Voldemort?" Harry asked but saw that the Headmaster apparently did not wish to answer.

"I will tell you in due time" told the older wizard. Harry felt that the tensions started rising, as Merope did not like one bit that Dumbledore decided not to tell the information that could prove useful against the future fight with Voldemort, in case he ever returned.

The three students left with Merope, while the Transfiguration Professor decided to stay and talk with Headmaster. As the students arrived, they saw Professor Sprout as well as the school Nurse, both of whom prepared the antidote to petrification curse.

After successfully treating her first victim, Madam Pomfrey moved to another. "Could I treat Hermione myself?" asked the boy and the nurse nodded and showed how to treat a patient. Harry took the container with the potion and poured a small dose onto Hermione's mouth and then all over her mouth.

Hermione opened her eyes and the first thing she saw were green eyes she knew well. "Harry!" she tried to say but spoke very quietly, as she still needed to adjust.

"Shh!" told her Harry and made a bear hug, after which he accidently tripped and fell on Hermione. The two were hugging each other with all strength they had but Harry also tried to be as gentle as he could as Hermione was yet to regain her strength. An older witch with long red hair watched the two students hugging and smiled.

A/N: Next Chapter: the End of the Second Year

The Following Chapter: the summer between the second and third year begins.


	37. The end of Year 2

Chapter 37

Couple days passed. All petrification victims were released from the Hospital wing and the mood in the castle increased. Some people were still unhappy as for some reason unknown, the Slytherin House received two hundred points in one night and was now the leader in terms of points. Now the snakes' house got ahead of everybody else, which pissed people off, especially the Gryffindors.

Harry Potter sat on grass, looking at the lake with his friends. He was very happy that the year was about to end, as he was eager to go home and spend time with his family and friends. He was also quite happy that Ginny would live with them too, as he liked the girl and thought that she could easily look like his sister as she had red hair like his mother albeit a different shade and her eyes' color was very similar to his fathers.

"Harry, what are you thinking about?" asked Hermione as she looked at her friend. Harry noticed that Hermione now spent even more hours in the library, trying to catch up for all the time she spent in the hospital wing; Harry remembered when the girl surprised her friends when she actually decided to take at least the theoretical portion of second year curriculum exams.

"I was thinking about everything that happened this year as well as what this new summer is going to bring. During the previous summer I became Lord Potter and now it seems that my family can return to Potter Manor as the wards can be reopened by Lord Potter. Also I had been thinking about the classes I will take next year"

"I see. I think all of them are interesting; I especially want to take Muggle Studies to know the Wizards' world perspective on how Muggles live. And I also decided to take all of the classes" the boys looked at Hermione in shock while the girls giggled as they thought that their friend would over stress herself by taking so many classes.

Harry saw his mother passing by and after she heard the conversation, she joined in. "Hermione, you don't want to overstress yourself in your third year by taking so many electives. Your course load will be harder as your classes will be more advanced and five extra classes will be not worth it. I especially discourage anyone from taking the Divination class, as I don't think you can learn the subject, you either have or do not have the seer ability." Hermione looked at her Professor and Harry knew that his friend would listen to his mother, as Lily Evans Potter was her role model and the girl respected the woman a lot.

"I think of taking Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies" Harry told the group. Hermione eyed her friend thinking on how she should respond. The other people in the group all decided to take the Magical Creatures Class although Luna decided to take Divination as her second elective whereas her other friends were mostly split between the Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies.

"Ok, I will take Care and Muggle studies but I am going to take Runes too" the girl told to her friends. The older witch smiled at Hermione's thrust for knowledge and want to get as much of it as she could.

"Then it is settled. I will tell Professor Dumbledore the classes you chose as your electives. This will be know later but I wanted to tell you all that your Care of Magical Creatures Professor will be Rubeus Hagrid." The children were now very surprised but happy as they all liked him although at times the tall man seemed intimidating.

"He also mentioned that if you know any creatures that you wish for him to bring to class, then you should talk to him although I warn you that he likes really deadly animals and I think it would be dangerous for him to bring to class an adult dragon or a basilisk or any other creature of category XXXXX." Lily then hugged her son and left to see Professor Dumbledore, leaving the Hogwarts students sitting on the ground, looking at each other.

"Imagine what would happen if Hagrid were to bring Rowena to one of his classes" not everyone got the joke at first but then they all started laughing, even Hermione. The girl could imagine that the sight of Salazar Slytherin's pet would make the entire student body wet their pants at the very least. And if the snake were to decide to be friendly and in dog like manner lick a student and wig its tail…

As the group looked at the sky, they noticed a black owl flying towards them. As it approached the group, it dropped an envelope on Hermione's lap. The girl saw that it was addressed on her name and opened it. She read, " Hermione Granger, you were listed as a beneficiary of Severus Snape in his will; he left everything he owned, including his house at Spinner's end on your name. The key to his vault is also included in this envelope." The girl looked at the envelope and found a small key that had a small snake engraved on its surface.

As the group sat on the train, leaving for summer, Hermione fondly remembered how she received all Outstandings on her theoretical world; the girl was quite happy with herself for getting those results. As the train approached the 9¾ station, the group looked on the platform and saw their parents standing on it. Harry and Hermione exited the train in later than others, as they were still talking about what the future year would bring.

"Hermione, I have to tell you something," told Harry to his friend. "When I saw you petrified, I felt that something was missing from my life. I later realized that I had feelings for one bossy Muggleborn friend of mine."

The girl looked skeptically at her friend with a confused look. "Harry, you don't mean that. I mean, I am just a plain Hermione, friend of Harry Potter" before she could continue, Harry pulled her into a hug and kissed her.

"Hermione Granger, will you be my girlfriend?" Harry Potter asked his friend.

"Yes!" she told him and they kissed again; however their happiness was interrupted by a sound of camera making a photo. The two quickly went to their families to avoid the press.

"Hermione, I talked to your parents and we decided to spend the summer at Potter Manor. " Harry took a portkey the Goblins gave him and activated him. Everyone touched the small shoe and soon appeared on the ground of the Potter estate.

"Hello Master, how can we help?" three small figures looked at the group and Lily's scream was then heard for like a mile away. "There are House Elves here?" she shouted angrily.


End file.
